tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-248359482024-03-14T02:00:08.567-04:00Tracie's Webhomegrown blog of Tracie Morris (poet/performer/professor)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-19765763369261167632014-02-22T03:07:00.000-05:002014-02-22T03:20:43.078-05:00<br />
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Well, y'all look:<br />
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It's not as if I haven't been doing *anything* while I was off this blog, okay?<br />
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I got a new poetry book out (Rhyme Scheme, Zasterle Press) got my academia grind on, performed -- a lot -- am on a couple new recordings, interviewed folks, laughed cried, cracked a few jokes worked way too much, changed my diet, started a new fitness regimen... and missed you guys! (Well, not the spammers.)<br />
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I'm doing better! I promise!<br />
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So... what if you need to find me? I got official findable stuff! Like my FB page over here:<br />
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tracie-Morris-Friend-Page/108387949226537 , where I talk about things I'm up to and a few other interesting things that other folks are doing (mostly to do with acting, truth be told).<br />
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I got this here twitter situation going on, yes I do! https://twitter.com/mstraciemorris<br />
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And yeah, you *may* have noticed that all the new-ish platforms kinda coincide with my slacking off on this end. It's true.<br />
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I think I kinda have a handle on what I'm going to do with all these different opportunities to reach you all but it took me a while to get it together. If you've kept up with me via alerts, I really appreciate it. If not, I don't blame you -- and I give you smooches anyway!<br />
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;-)<br />
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This weblog will be closer to the rambling variety (as it has been) but I've decided to keep the posts shorter and sweeter so I can check in more often.<br />
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What's today's missive about?<br />
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*Shakespeare*. You guys didn't know I was a Shakespeare freak? All my postings about Ian McKellen over the years didn't clue you in? Well I am. I've studied Shakespearean acting overseas, I'm working on a Shakespeare project and teach The Sonnets so there's that.<br />
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In the last 10 days I've seen 4 Shakespeare plays and have enjoyed each of them. From Brooklyn to Broadway to Loisaida it's been all about the Bard. I'm planning to see even more this season. You can never get enough! No matter how I'm feeling, no matter what goes on, connecting to Shakespeare through reading, writing, viewing, learning is grounding, calming (even when looking at those extreme tragedies of his, even reading the depths of despair in the sonnets). Live Shakespeare done well and with enthusiasm is regenerative to my spirit. It's helped me get through this ridiculous winter of discontent (a.k.a. slush, ice, rock salt and garbage via the 18 storms we've had in the region this season). I'll take some extra Shakespeare on top of my Shakespeare, thank you very much!<br />
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Going in reverse order, I just caught the last weekend run of "Othello: The Panther" a repurposing of the context of WS' most famous Moor (yes, Shakespeare wrote about more than one), down at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe. The concept was great and there was some excellent choreography, music, acting, directing and language. The energy was high and the pacing was lively. I really enjoyed the intimate venue of seeing this play presented in an unusual way. Just great.<br />
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Last week I saw the giant of an actor, Mark Rylance, *slay* the boards along with an astounding group of collaborators in the Richard III/Twelfth Night double bill on Broadway. Ba.Na.Nas.<br />
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Rylance is the epitome of perfectly blended American and British acting. The guy is uncategorizable except genius. I will be *very* surprised if this production doesn't sweep the Tonys. Twelfth Night was, quite possibly, the best theater I've ever seen.<br />
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My little run started off with an actor that does us US-based Shakespearean actors proud, the extraordinary Frank Langella as King Lear at BAM. Langella is a *beast*. I just love, love, love his acting and I have for many years. He knows how the make language work beautifully. Here's to NYC and Bayonne's own. *Any*time I see dude, I take notes.<br />
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Besides brushing up on you-know-who, I've been reading, performing, writing like a madwoman and traveling a bit. Let's just say the weather hasn't held me back. And speaking of which, that groundhog Phil was right -- again! -- but it doesn't have to mean I like it!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YQx2s-zq1ig/UwhdDo78yaI/AAAAAAAAAUA/sLAdGiSgoQI/s1600/punxsutawney-phil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YQx2s-zq1ig/UwhdDo78yaI/AAAAAAAAAUA/sLAdGiSgoQI/s1600/punxsutawney-phil.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
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(via Geoff Fox's "My Permanent Record" blog)</div>
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Happy 2014/Year of the Horse/Winter and soon-to-be Spring to you!<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_5TtNoWjS_0/UwhdPQWDWWI/AAAAAAAAAUI/DrWxDsdXe94/s1600/year-of-the-horse-1024x640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_5TtNoWjS_0/UwhdPQWDWWI/AAAAAAAAAUI/DrWxDsdXe94/s1600/year-of-the-horse-1024x640.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
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(via the Lakeside Collection blog)</div>
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(via The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe website)</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cAB0kZZvIFM/UwhdmDQqCYI/AAAAAAAAAUY/5sEW27fHU6k/s1600/17ACTING_SPAN-articleLarge-v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cAB0kZZvIFM/UwhdmDQqCYI/AAAAAAAAAUY/5sEW27fHU6k/s1600/17ACTING_SPAN-articleLarge-v2.jpg" height="232" width="320" /></a></div>
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(Mark Rylance, photo by Chad Batka, via The New York Times website)</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PE9sb7E5c2I/UwhdvmbQDOI/AAAAAAAAAUg/GEkEk4Re-As/s1600/29073-2014-WS-New-Images-Lear-613X463.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PE9sb7E5c2I/UwhdvmbQDOI/AAAAAAAAAUg/GEkEk4Re-As/s1600/29073-2014-WS-New-Images-Lear-613X463.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
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(Frank Langella as King Lear via BAM.org's website)</div>
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XXX<br />
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When to the sessions of sweet silent thought<br />
I summon up remembrance of things past,<br />
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,<br />
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:<br />
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,<br />
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,<br />
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,<br />
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:<br />
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,<br />
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er<br />
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,<br />
Which I new pay as if not paid before.<br />
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,<br />
All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.<br />
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-- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30<br />
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Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-69190000566544412082011-09-08T10:29:00.000-04:002011-09-08T10:29:33.480-04:00Finally! My revived website is up! traciemorris.comHey Cats and Kittens!<br />
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I have a new, simpler version of my traciemorris.com website up and running! I'm very glad to have it and I hope you like it. You'll be able to connect to this blog/spot via my "Fun Links & Stuff" webpage.<br />
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I'm also on Twitter and Facebook (mstraciemorris on twitter and Tracie Morris' "fan page" on Facebook). This blog will remain a forum for me to post longer notes, pictures and poems that I like.<br />
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For those of you who check in here, thanks so much for your persistence as I try to improve my online presence. I really appreciate your support!<br />
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See you around the internet,<br />
Tracie<br />
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www.traciemorris.comTraciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-21408705935662914092011-05-24T13:59:00.000-04:002011-05-24T13:59:22.706-04:00working on the site -- Happy Summer 2011!As I work on the site, here's an update via my little blog. BTW, you can reach me via Facebook on my Tracie Morris "fan page" or via Twitter @mstraciemorris. Hope to catch you on the 'net. xo, Tracie<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/JuGvPf4dEn0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
This is the trailer for the documentary film I'm in. A very sweet little piece by the renown director Bert Shapiro. Enjoy and check out the film via <a href="http://www.newfilmmakersonline.com/movie-download/26220,3758/BERT-SHAPIRO-SPEAKING-FOR-MYSELF">www.newfilmmakersonline.com</a>Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-42168226832161370762011-03-19T13:44:00.003-04:002011-03-19T19:05:46.812-04:00Happy Spring! 2011Hi. I'm renovating this site and blog. Thanks for your patience. If you get re-routed or something weird happens, please bear with me as this is getting sorted.<br /><br />Hope the weather is nice where you are. <br /><br />TracieTraciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-71821703291857341642010-06-11T20:29:00.016-04:002010-06-13T11:11:47.871-04:00Playing a bit of ketchup (and hot sauce)!Spring has sprung and it's my season. It came in like a lion! (Lots of pix here that I took (unless credited). I know they're kinda sucky but I used a phone and I'm not a photographer so lower your expectations!<br /><br />Ketchup: I guess I'll have to work backward with updates on doings. Right now I'm lamenting <span style="font-style:italic;">not</span> being at the exciting Rethinking Poetics conference at Columbia in collaboration with Penn.I especially feel guilty because I was just in Philly for a hot second taping another installment of Poem talk organized and hosted by the adorable Al Filreis. No uptown hanging out for me: I'm on a deadline for a big project and my birthday's coming up (w/ festivities) and have other obligations this weekend. Ah, well.The conference is right in the city, too. Have fun for me everybody! <br /><br /> <a href="http://rethinkingpoetics.wordpress.com/panels/">http://rethinkingpoetics.wordpress.com/panels/</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLmfc9q7bI/AAAAAAAAALk/EwXneKqPG9g/s1600/IMG_0183.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLmfc9q7bI/AAAAAAAAALk/EwXneKqPG9g/s400/IMG_0183.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481697124488506802" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLm-hVNsAI/AAAAAAAAALs/XGXkOnAIVIo/s1600/IMG_0182.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLm-hVNsAI/AAAAAAAAALs/XGXkOnAIVIo/s400/IMG_0182.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481697658236940290" /></a><br /><br />But... I did get to see one of the luminaries, Charles Bernstein earlier this week in a reading w/ Kenny Goldsmith at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue. It was a nice reading! I haven't heard Kenny read that much and I really enjoyed the double poetry bill with Charles and he. They were also joined by a musician, Jamie Saft. There was a friendly discussion w/ an editor of the Forward, as well as the curator of the event, after the show. There was also a lovely tour of the synagogue and it's progressive history. Very nice! The Lower East Side hasn't always been the supergentrified spot it is being presented as nowadays. This is a photo of a hilarious traffic light I saw as I walked from the train.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLnXCfJhBI/AAAAAAAAAL0/rEP_eJ_5w2g/s1600/IMG_0191.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLnXCfJhBI/AAAAAAAAAL0/rEP_eJ_5w2g/s400/IMG_0191.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481698079453840402" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Charles read a poem on Walter Benjamin that I haven't heard since we performed together in Paris years ago (ooh la la) and it was great to hear it again as well as some of his libretti. Jamie Saft has worked w/ lots of folks including John Zorn. (John seems to have worked with everyone I know, I swear, and I recently checked out another friend of his, visual artist David Chaim Smith who's illustrations/interpretations of Kabbalah at the Cavin Morris gallery were beautiful and intricate. I wish I could afford to buy one...ah well. I feel that way everytime I walk into a gallery. But DCS's work really was quite gorgeous.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLnxV2nSnI/AAAAAAAAAL8/XZjLsH3QYNw/s1600/IMG_0152.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLnxV2nSnI/AAAAAAAAAL8/XZjLsH3QYNw/s400/IMG_0152.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481698531329133170" /></a><br /><br /><br />Speaking of galleries, I don't know if I even want to get into the vortex that was my experience w/ Marina Abramovic! It was intense! Here's the thumbnail: I went at the suggestion of a few people, including one of my colleagues at Pratt and it was like living in another world for a week. Now that the dust has settled and I'm reived from my reverie, I can think on it a bit. Don't want to be too long winded on this post (too late!) but it was very moving and special. I went to MoMa several times: once to check out the retrospective upstairs, once to check out the crowd, once to sit w/ Marina and I had to go to the closing day, for goodness sake. It was star-studded and, in some ways, anti-star b/c the stars, especially at the end, couldn't sit w/ her. The line and all who waited overnight were too formidable to jump just because the person is famous. New Yorkers have been known to be violent when someone cuts the line! I didn't sit w/ her long myself (I think it was a couple minutes). Personally I didn't feel it was necessary to stay that long in order to understand the <span style="font-style:italic;">implications </span> of what she was doing, especially w/ so many people waiting to sit w/ her and I also think I could have stayed sitting w/ her for weeks and weeks and still discovered new things. So what was the point of hogging the time? <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLrZ86lRQI/AAAAAAAAAMc/F0sGzDdERkc/s1600/IMG_0155.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLrZ86lRQI/AAAAAAAAAMc/F0sGzDdERkc/s400/IMG_0155.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481702527544411394" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLohsZvBLI/AAAAAAAAAME/6DQuoVzhLq0/s1600/600a.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 265px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLohsZvBLI/AAAAAAAAAME/6DQuoVzhLq0/s400/600a.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481699362015741106" /></a><br /><br />(h/t slp: calarts/redcat events)<br /><br />One of the great added benefits of "meeting" Marina was that I bumped into the affable Suzan Lori-Parks that day and she went old school in appreciation for "not hogging the mic" as it were. It was a fun conversation and I find her work really interesting. Lovely use of language. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLpxYPeAfI/AAAAAAAAAMM/FXx40Aq5duY/s1600/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 112px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLpxYPeAfI/AAAAAAAAAMM/FXx40Aq5duY/s400/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481700730993508850" /></a><br /><br />(h/t Jacket magazine) <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLqW3JfM2I/AAAAAAAAAMU/_PgGswVRdEA/s1600/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 112px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLqW3JfM2I/AAAAAAAAAMU/_PgGswVRdEA/s400/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481701374945080162" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t squaw valley writers.org) <br /><br />I am tempted to name drop other folks that I saw there but that's kinda boring. However, I did run into a couple poets and we got to hang out the last day: Evie Shockley and Lee Ann Brown. I love seeing poets in places! Especially my friends. More poets in places! Fan out poets! <br /><br />Lifestyle changes: well, I've decided to get healthier (a never-ending quest) and am becoming more strict w/ the old diet. Less junk, crap, garbage. More weight-training whole, live foods and water. Since Gemini season has arrived and that means my birthday (yay!) it's time to re-evaluate and move forward. I have some ridiculous precedents for long life in my family (I had an uncle who died at 108), and if I get w/ the program I might be around and healthy for a while. If not, well, there are, unfortunately other precedents for ill health in my family too. I'm at the point now where I'm deciding to tap into the long-living genetic disposition and not to undermine it with bad habits. Weirdly, I'm eating more these days but am not as "fluffy" as before. Consuming better food actually gives me more leeway with how much I can eat. I know this is like "duh, no kidding" but I had to find out w/ trial and error. Whatever. Wish me luck! <br /><br />Projects: Writing and re-evaluating my writing. It's quite the meditation going over past words. I can almost feel the context of why I <span style="font-weight:bold;">needed</span> to write them at the time, coming back. Not exactly a trip down memory lane more like some Star Trek space-time continuum collapse! Disconcerting, unnerving. But good! Doing some recording soon too and that is always lovely. <br /><br />My trip to Uganda was life-changing. I love going to Africa and have always enjoyed my experiences there. Every place is, of course, very different. In Uganda I got to hang out at schools. I met quite a few students and they are smart, smart, smart. The scholastic resources are terrible though. I saw the vestiges of colonialism (even now) in the depleated libraries and dated books. One thing I did note however, was how much more well-read the students are regarding African literature. I got exposed to many of the books they read as schoolchildren in grad school. That's a sad commentary on the US education system in relation to the second-largest continent on earth. And the students are well-read about very different African authors from throughout the continent. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLwEk6BeDI/AAAAAAAAAMs/5a6VJDi-Ygg/s1600/IMG_0415.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLwEk6BeDI/AAAAAAAAAMs/5a6VJDi-Ygg/s400/IMG_0415.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481707657880500274" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLswE5yAcI/AAAAAAAAAMk/_tR90o5sHX8/s1600/IMG_0453.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLswE5yAcI/AAAAAAAAAMk/_tR90o5sHX8/s400/IMG_0453.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481704007157285314" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />On a goofy tip, I criss-crossed the equator and that was super fun! I've been south of the equator quite a few times but stopping and taking pictures was cool! Also went to the source of the Nile. That was supercool because I've visited Egypt and went to the end of the Nile so it's like: yay! End to end! The falls around Uganda are gorgeous. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLwWwnxKDI/AAAAAAAAAM0/H9hTB3X6ciM/s1600/IMG_0383.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/TBLwWwnxKDI/AAAAAAAAAM0/H9hTB3X6ciM/s400/IMG_0383.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481707970262804530" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Politcally, because of the controvery anti-gay/queer legislation in the country, the place is flooded w/ southern White evangelicals. Whatever floats your boat on the religious tip, but these folks bring their bad habits, intolerance and awkwardness whereever they go. It seemed to me (after run-in with a couple of these yahoos) that racism and prejudice trumps religion. Just tacky behavior (and aesthetically, just straight up tacky!) I can't agree w/ the intolerance of queer people there (or here for that matter) and I find it interesting that some Africans are very critical of European/Euro-American imperialism when it comes to some things but not other things. If the news reports coming out of the States about who's funding the anti-Gay measures in Uganda (conservative White Christian fundamentalists here in the States) are correct, then this intolerance is just as much an aspect of imperialism as the bad textbooks in the schools that privileges Europe and America over Africa, even for Africans. <br /><br />LIke I said, it was a deep trip! I look forward to visiting Uganda again. I met some beautiful, smart people there. <br /><br />Hot Sauce on the table: I've got a few projects heating up (as I've mentioned) and will hopefully be revamping this website over the summer. So if you tune in and things are different, it's on purpose! I'm glad for this nuts-and-bolts website version but hope to step up my game a teeny bit now that I've got other irons in the fire. Stay tuned and enjoy the decent weather! <br /><br />xo, <br />Tracie<br /><br />PS: An early Happy Pops day for you Pops!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">My Father's Geography</span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Afaa M. Weaver</span><br /> <br />I was parading the Côte d'Azur,<br />hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes,<br />following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo<br />to the hill that overlooks the ville.<br />A woman fed me pâté in the afternoon,<br />calling from her stall to offer me more.<br />At breakfast I talked in French with an old man<br />about what he loved about America--the Kennedys.<br /><br />On the beaches I walked and watched<br />topless women sunbathe and swim,<br />loving both home and being so far from it.<br /><br />At a phone looking to Africa over the Mediterranean,<br />I called my father, and, missing me, he said,<br />"You almost home boy. Go on cross that sea!"<br /><br />(h/t poets.org)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-66086596136967040422010-05-30T15:14:00.003-04:002010-05-30T15:21:26.885-04:00It's been a long time....to quote Rakim!<br /><br />Lissen, I have been b-u-s-y! I'll fill you in w/ more details soon. <br /><br />What do I have to tell you about? Latest musings, my trip to Uganda, sitting w/ Marina Abramovic, new projects, lifestyle changes, summer coming, the Gemini season starting, revamping ye olde website. <br /><br />My next post is probably gonna be loooong! Maybe even in two parts! <br /><br />So look out this week and I'll catch y'all up. This is what *professional* blogger and entertainment types call "a teaser". <br /><br />Thanks for checking in,<br />TracieTraciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-41663967595450983462010-02-23T20:53:00.005-05:002010-02-23T21:16:55.395-05:00Oops! Almost forgot...<span style="font-weight:bold;">HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4SJPUA2WGI/AAAAAAAAALc/hX3Ue18JEGw/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 116px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4SJPUA2WGI/AAAAAAAAALc/hX3Ue18JEGw/s400/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441625145933715554" /></a><br /> Special Yay if you're a cat person!<br /> <span style="font-style:italic;"> (Year of the Tiger)</span><br />:-) <br /><br />TM<br /><br />(h/t to news.bbc.co.uk for the pic)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-40220938929121385492010-02-20T20:02:00.011-05:002010-02-20T22:00:02.767-05:00another day in the citiesWell today was one of those good days. The kind I like -- full of different things intersecting and a little surprise. As a preface to the cities/spaces I experienced today was a talk I attended on Thursday presented by the British architect David Adjaye. It was an interesting talk and he raised some provocative points about cultural intersections during a Q and A with Thelma Golden and the other presenters of the "Blacks in Architecture" conference. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CYmbMx1QI/AAAAAAAAAKc/f3h6Y2uuiAk/s1600-h/adjaye460x276.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CYmbMx1QI/AAAAAAAAAKc/f3h6Y2uuiAk/s400/adjaye460x276.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440516135767364866" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t guardian.co.uk)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Cityscapes upon cities...</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">London:</span> I started off reading a bit about my beloved philosopher J.L. Austin after doing some creative writing yesterday. I came across this wonderful little miniseries from 1990 out of London. I'm probably one of the last literary-type people to have actually seen it: the fabulous 4 part "trilogy" House of Cards starring the great Ian Richardson. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CZK57BCXI/AAAAAAAAAKk/wgyfQo0zwts/s1600-h/Jl_austin.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 355px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CZK57BCXI/AAAAAAAAAKk/wgyfQo0zwts/s400/Jl_austin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440516762489653618" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(J.L. Austin above. h/t philweb.net)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CZmZgSZwI/AAAAAAAAAKs/XWJDyNy41yA/s1600-h/ian_richardson_4.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CZmZgSZwI/AAAAAAAAAKs/XWJDyNy41yA/s400/ian_richardson_4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440517234823948034" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(Ian Richardson via britishcinemagreats.com)<br /><br />It was fun going down memory lane (the early 1990s) and seeing such lovely subtle "face work" from Mr. Richardson. Everyone in the series was really great -- and intense! -- in their work. Totally in the moment. I was impressed. Like the other Ian I always mention, it was a fourth-wall breaking performance based on Richard III. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lagos</span>: I ran off to see the Broadway show Fela! as part a family outing and was blown away. It was magnificent! I saw Kevin Mambo as Fela and he turned it out! I had a chance to see the original great many, many years ago and I have to say, although there were many people on stage in the play, it was a fraction of the amout of people I rememeber seeing in Fela's actual show! The actors (at the Eugene O'Neil Theatre) took it to the hoop! Bill T and his collaborators wore it out! Dealt with the politics, Afrocentricity, the astounding music and dance, the spirituality, everything. I refused to read any reviews before seeing it -- and don't rely on them anyway. I recently saw a play with my good friend Sarah and we really didn't care for it. The mainstream reviews gave it a *rave*. Different strokes. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CaFlYst1I/AAAAAAAAAK0/1_k3KBB7f0Q/s1600-h/Fela-HeadShot1-bb-2.5-c.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 209px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CaFlYst1I/AAAAAAAAAK0/1_k3KBB7f0Q/s400/Fela-HeadShot1-bb-2.5-c.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440517770589288274" /></a><br /><br />(Fela to the left. h/t africantheaterusa.com)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4Ca41Tr9dI/AAAAAAAAAK8/etWdb2n3Zww/s1600-h/fela,+fun+kevin.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4Ca41Tr9dI/AAAAAAAAAK8/etWdb2n3Zww/s400/fela,+fun+kevin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440518651036562898" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(Kevin Mambo h/t wemakemoves.com)<br /><br />I recently told a poetry colleague of mine that I like stuff that's really old and I like stuff that's really new, not as much stuff that's in the middle. (Early onset of curmudgeon, I suspect). I guess I like Mr. Richardson and Fela because they are *re* - newels of something(s) old. Of course, we're talking apples and oranges here in other respects...but one could argue that both presentations are critiques about corruptive residues of the British Empire, so there's that. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">New York:</span> When we were leaving the theater and getting into the train station, we ran into the great actor Tony Shalhoub (confirmed dork, I have seen *all* the eoisodes of "Monk" just to watch him work out as an actor) and his lovely wife, the wonderful actor Brooke Adams. Truth be told, I did not recognize her because she looks so much younger than she does on film. Tony Shalhoub looks better in real life, too. (I'm not saying they looked the opposite, of course, it's just that with all the lighting and makeup you'd think film would do them justice but it doesn't). I love New York: you just never know who you'll run into -- and to a large extent nobody cares. That's why famous people like to live here, too. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4Cb4xW_rbI/AAAAAAAAALE/WqD6rnEcmVc/s1600-h/tony+shalhoub+brooke+adams.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4Cb4xW_rbI/AAAAAAAAALE/WqD6rnEcmVc/s400/tony+shalhoub+brooke+adams.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440519749488324018" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via imdb/golden globes)<br /><br />I hope seeeing Mr. Shalhoub in the streets of the city means he's going to be staying back on stage where he belongs. I mean, I like TV and film but if you've got the chops for the stage, whole other level. <br /><br /><br /><br />Hmmm. I guess it's worthwhile going to Manhattan occassionally. Nice place to visit...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CcS2RLM2I/AAAAAAAAALM/V6gEyhXVYcg/s1600-h/manhattan_traffic_2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S4CcS2RLM2I/AAAAAAAAALM/V6gEyhXVYcg/s400/manhattan_traffic_2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440520197482689378" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t wired.com)<br /><br />Tracie<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Crossing Brooklyn Ferry</span> (excerpt)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Walt Whitman</span><br />1<br />Flood-tide below me! I watch you face to face; <br />Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face. <br /> <br />Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you<br /> are to me! <br />On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home,<br /> are more curious to me than you suppose; <br />And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me,<br /> and more in my meditations, than you might suppose. <br /><br />2<br />The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day; <br />The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme—myself disintegrated,<br /> every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme: <br />The similitudes of the past, and those of the future; <br />The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings—<br /> on the walk in the street, and the passage over the river; <br />The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away;<br />The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them; <br />The certainty of others—the life, love, sight, hearing of others. <br /> <br />Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore; <br />Others will watch the run of the flood-tide; <br />Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights<br /> of Brooklyn to the south and east;<br />Others will see the islands large and small; <br />Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an<br /> hour high; <br />A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will<br /> see them, <br />Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back<br /> to the sea of the ebb-tide. <br /> <br />3<br />It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not;<br />I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so<br /> many generations hence; <br />I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how<br /> it is. <br /> <br />Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt; <br />Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd; <br />Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow,<br /> I was refresh'd;<br />Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current,<br /> I stood, yet was hurried; <br />Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem'd<br /> pipes of steamboats, I look'd. <br /> <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">PS! Thanks for all the well-wishes re: the Brooklyn Poet Laureate position. I was one of the three finalists. It was super, duper cool to be considered and share a bit of the limelight with Jess Greenbaum and our borough's new poetic representation, Tina Chang! </span>Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-70395237391494726992010-01-24T12:01:00.009-05:002010-01-24T14:10:44.625-05:00Week of Contrasts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yPdwB1kdI/AAAAAAAAAJk/nJX4H-BXVJA/s1600-h/MartinFace.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 201px; height: 281px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yPdwB1kdI/AAAAAAAAAJk/nJX4H-BXVJA/s400/MartinFace.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430372991973560786" /></a><br />(h/t mlkjrfoundationpgc.org)<br /><br />Last week had to go down as one of the most striking weeks I've seen. It started off with an acknowledgement of MLK Jr.'s legacy and bringing the country together. The next day we saw another country ripped apart before our disbelieving eyes. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yQs4gImyI/AAAAAAAAAJs/tePeMJGsn6M/s1600-h/22haiti.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yQs4gImyI/AAAAAAAAAJs/tePeMJGsn6M/s400/22haiti.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430374351457786658" /></a><br /><br />The relationship is not that far apart. Haiti's human rights victory in 1804 had a direct affect on the anti-slavery movement in the United States and around the world. One silver lining in that rubble-constructed cloud is that some information about the pivotal role that Haiti has played in world history (and the way it's been punished for it's freedom ever since) is being uttered frankly in American main stream circles. Unless you were well educated in the history of people who have been historically marginalized, you may not have been aware of how important Haiti has been to the world. The Haitian Ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph, and writer Edwidge Dandicat have spoken movingly and clearly about this topic as well as the disaster. It is terrible that it took such a catastrophe for many of us to know more about our neighbor. I hope these important historical points don't get swept away by, what is oftentimes the deluge of catastrophic images that replace actual news and context. <br /><br />Another unexpected event, that isn't a disaster but could affect many, many lives here and around the world, is the declaration of Scott Brown as Senator-elect in Massachusetts. His place in the Senate might very well determine whether or not healthcare gets passed. As Alan Grayson, the rabble-rousing congressman from Florida has explained, over 45,000 people die every year for lack of healthcare in the US. Since Brown's in a blue state, we'll have to see how he works with his colleagues but this is really going to be a challenge to move the agenda for the progressives among us -- or anyone who wants better healthcare irrespective of political opinion on how it gets done. Brown's vote may determine if anything gets done at all. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1ySGoWtUWI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/L-uuLX0MzOU/s1600-h/massachusetts.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1ySGoWtUWI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/L-uuLX0MzOU/s400/massachusetts.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430375893311508834" /></a><br />(h/t 50states.com)<br /><br />As the week progressed it continued to get weird: the Supreme Court ruling that legal constructs are people too (and can talk!) was bizarre and distressing for democracy. I hope the legislative bodies move swiftly and quickly to ameliorate the court's decision. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yS6v2vlKI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/Atgu2xzr-8Q/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 120px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yS6v2vlKI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/Atgu2xzr-8Q/s400/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430376788678120610" /></a><br />(h/t choices campus blog)<br /><br />Then Air America went down the tubes. I'm not surprised by this -- at all -- having listened to the network at its inception. They had great programming and the management just kept messing it up until they ruined the franchise. The one good thing that emerged from that self-sabotaging scenario was some of the talent it brought to the fore (who had enough sense to jump ship and/or supplement their distribution outside of Air America). Some of the notables I became familiar with because of the network (not the ones I knew of before its inception) include: the super smart Sam Seder, Marc Maron and the exemplary Morning Sedition show, Rachel Maddow, the Ring of Fire broadcasters. In fact, the attention that Air America drew to progressive affiliates gave me exposure to: Nancy Skinner, the Young Turks, and the very funny Stephanie Miller show. Needless to say, I don't agree w/ everyone 200% and they would certainly say the same thing about my musings but it's so great to have a few determined voices out there in commercial radio to counter the bombardment of intolerant, extreme right wing voices that are all over the AM dial. The cool thing is, I find most of the broadcasters that I hear to be pretty good comedians too and a little levity helps during tumultuous change. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yTb5lCn2I/AAAAAAAAAKE/2wpWqk2OEBQ/s1600-h/images-1.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 118px; height: 80px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yTb5lCn2I/AAAAAAAAAKE/2wpWqk2OEBQ/s400/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430377358223908706" /></a><br />(h/t airamerica.com)<br /><br />As a side note, the Coco/Leno debacle did grab a moment of my interest too, truth be told. Not that I'm crying for any of those multimillionaires but I do recall Conan O'Brien's show when it first started and found him funny -- and very tall. The controversy between he, Leno and Letterman, from the little I know, was intense and ascerbic and funny at times. I guess I paid a bit of attention to it because *relatively speaking* the little guy (a.k.a. O'Brien) seemed to be cheated out of his chance. He's also closer to my age-peer so that probably has something to do with it, too. Having been at the very, very edge of the margin of entertainment culture, I have a sense of that world (just a bit) so I have a little corner of empathy. Not that he needs *my* support, for goodness sake. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yWJiIMOxI/AAAAAAAAAKM/eSJwiGcoy78/s1600-h/images-2.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 86px; height: 126px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yWJiIMOxI/AAAAAAAAAKM/eSJwiGcoy78/s400/images-2.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430380341226126098" /></a><br />(h/t Us Magazine.com)<br /><br />I certainly *got* my share of support this week though. I finally dragged myself out of the house to have dinner w/ some friends (despite my hermit tendencies) and also saw one of those once in a lifetime events: a collaboration between the late, extraordinary Max Roach's percussion group and the World Saxophone Quartet. They haven't played together in a few decades. I ran into folks I haven't seen in dogs' years! I'll say more about that in my next post, I think. It's been quite a week to process and I need some room in my head first to give that performance some space on my little blog. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yWun8xO4I/AAAAAAAAAKU/I1edchf4Lu8/s1600-h/images-3.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 97px; height: 146px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S1yWun8xO4I/AAAAAAAAAKU/I1edchf4Lu8/s400/images-3.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430380978443991938" /></a><br />(h/t globaljazznetwork.com)<br /><br /><br />Hang in there peeps,<br />TracieTraciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-64835637595684813272010-01-10T10:12:00.018-05:002010-01-10T16:31:46.386-05:00HNY 2010Dag. What a big number! <span style="font-weight:bold;">2010<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>! <br /><br />Well, not quite as futuristic as the movie 2001 and the (underrated) tv show Space 1999 projected. (Remember that show? With the wonderful -- and formally married --acting pair Martin Landau and Barbara Bain?) <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0ov1KiKE_I/AAAAAAAAAH8/Hd3Z4ixvCFc/s1600-h/250px-Space1999_Year1_Title.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 189px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0ov1KiKE_I/AAAAAAAAAH8/Hd3Z4ixvCFc/s320/250px-Space1999_Year1_Title.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425201291528377330" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(from Space 1999 wikipedia entry)<br /><br />I don't know about you all but this year feels different for me. Last year was a little "dramatic" toward the end so I figure this one will "come in like a lamb" to borrow from the expression. I love the New Year and we get to commemorate the Lunar New Year in about a month -- going from Ox to Tiger. <br /><br />So I felt the itch to starting writing for January (and usually feel compelled to write) because I love my life and the riches of the world. (Saccarine, much?) Really though! Life's just amazing. I'm a (notorious) Gemini, as everyone who knows me knows and we twin folks are famous for loving contrasts, especially when it comes to communication. (Hey, star-gazing is entertaining! The poet Sekou Sundiata used to say he'd look at the daily astrological forecasts and whichever he liked the best, that's the one he'd believe. I go for that system!)<br /><br />Over the years that I've written for this lil blog, I usually demonstrate my affection for contrasts. I love so many things and when they crash into each other in my comings and goings, I feel so happy! The world is amazing, funny, sad, infuriating and wonderful. <br /><br />Even in New York in January. Cold, filthy and did I mention cold? <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0oxzmrPm7I/AAAAAAAAAIE/yN3bDIQw51g/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 116px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0oxzmrPm7I/AAAAAAAAAIE/yN3bDIQw51g/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425203463746198450" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(from wcbs880.com website. <span style="font-style:italic;">Yeah, go already</span>.)<br /><br />Started off the year with some fun: The New Year's Reading at St. Mark's. I dragged Elliott Sharp into my scheme (like Lucy did poor Ricky) and we enjoyed ourselves. We did a cover! Sorry you had to be there...I've performed w/ Elliott a bunch so it wasn't horrible and surprisingly stress-free. I like going to the Project and trying out new stuff on New Year's. Keeps me on my toes!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0oyR9wybLI/AAAAAAAAAIM/70Hikywmx38/s1600-h/frontp.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 235px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0oyR9wybLI/AAAAAAAAAIM/70Hikywmx38/s320/frontp.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425203985339542706" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via panix.com)<br /><br />Now that the year is really, really here, I found other pleasures before classes start: I was geeking out to hours and hours of a wonderful podcast called "Philosophy Bites" out of London (philosophybites.com). It's all about European philosophical traditions/ethical questions/notable theorists. As an adoring fan of J.L. Austin and a newcomer to this world (I didn't seriously start exploring philosophy until my last go-round in grad school except for the required basics for my PoliSci undergrad degree). it's nice to get the overview/review. (Descartes, It's been ages! Rousseau, what's up? Isaiah Berlin! Derrida, you codger!) <br /><br />What I'm interested in contributing to the field, I hope, is a consideration of the ways that non-Eurocentric (and the implicit cultural baggage of top-dog status) can inform and be informed by seemingly oppositional cultural/political philosophical viewpoints. In other words, how can we converse with the goal of everybody learning something. Know why? Because we're all influenced by each other (sometimes for better, sometimes not). I like to look at the surprising ways in which ideas are linked. I guess John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" got to me as a kid when the show was re-run on PBS for a while...<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0pCrq-lFPI/AAAAAAAAAJU/-NgNvDNr1PA/s1600-h/100px-Waysofseeingcvr.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 100px; height: 155px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0pCrq-lFPI/AAAAAAAAAJU/-NgNvDNr1PA/s400/100px-Waysofseeingcvr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425222019159758066" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via Ways of Seeing wikipedia page)<br /><br /> I like Philosophy Bites (and its sibling "Ethics Bites") because it has a great deal of affection for "the western" half of the equation. I like going over this stuff! (To be fair, they did have a podcast on Eastern -- i.e. Indian -- philosophy w/ Keith Ward but that was out of 111 episodes. That's their thing and it's cool. They're upfront w/ the perspective). Of course I'm not making a point about the backgrounds of the commentators but the subject matter being discussed. As y'all know, I like Shakespeare plays so it's not my first time at this western (love-fest) rodeo! (corny pun. get it?)<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o-Z5LTiSI/AAAAAAAAAJE/6BRFLIsjOZE/s1600-h/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 88px; height: 88px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o-Z5LTiSI/AAAAAAAAAJE/6BRFLIsjOZE/s400/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425217315687074082" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(c/o nigelwarburton.typepad.com)<br /><br />Now if doing cover tunes in an experimental way and listening to Classical Philosophy isn't enough of a contrast, I've got another one for ya: A friend of mine started circulating some clips of the great Paul Mooney opining, acerbically and hilariously, on Pres. Obama, Tiger Woods, Richard Pryor, etc. O.M.G. Mr. Mooney is always deep! I had the pleasure of interviewing him many, many years ago when I was doing some freelance writing for the Amsterdam News and I also have to say that in person, he is one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. What comes out of his mouth is really caustic! But: gorgeous skin, cheekbones somewhere around his temples, just beautific. I think he looks good bald, too. Even in his late 60s, he's stunning. I mention this because it's one of the things that really stands out about him and one that's not discussed that much. (There are plenty of other things to talk about!) I'm also reminded that he could have easily gone the Hollywood way. He's tall enough, too (even though most famous actors are pretty short.). I'm sure he coulda gotten "the gig" and played the docile, adorable "Black Guy" (either leading role or buddy) but he decided to walk the road less traveled -- and will not change! He's an old-school, thugged out in-your-face bro who's still justifiably angry!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o18YAQDvI/AAAAAAAAAIc/JYLmJopmGyk/s1600-h/paul_mooney_pic.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 297px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o18YAQDvI/AAAAAAAAAIc/JYLmJopmGyk/s320/paul_mooney_pic.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425208012473110258" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via STLToday -- St. Louis Today)<br /><br />Now, before you finish the thought of "But do you agree when he said_________" -- Fill in the blank with anything! I don't think it's a matter of agreeing with him or not. Paul Mooney does two things and he does them quite well: He forces people to confront their racial assumptions and he makes jokes. Those two things are what his comments are in service to. It's like asking if Andy Kaufman really thought he was doing justice to his rendition of the Mighty Mouse cartoon theme song on Saturday Night Live: that's not the point. I'm equivocating a bit because I do think that Paul Mooney means what he says but what he does, in fact, mean by what he is saying is predicated on the two goals I mentioned. He was a nice person to interview, too. A real family guy and very loyal to his friends (which includes quite an array of now-famous celebrities because of his help). He had a bit of an edge but he seemed to be a very caring person to me -- except when it comes to the feelings of his audience: then it's no holds barred. I find that I consistently say whenever I hear a Mooney clip that famous Black accolade for shock: "That's messed up!" <br /><br />Wrapping up the last ten days, I finished the first drafts of some articles/commentaries I have coming out this year and a few were recently published. The ones that have hit or are hitting the stands are in the current issue of boundary 2 (fall, 2009) and the upcoming Eco-Reader that Brenda Ijima is editing. When the other two are out, I'll let you know. I'm fixing them up over the next week or so as well as writing a blurb for a very prestigious person (that is more intimidating than writing an article) that'll also be out this spring. Trying to get some work done. What I find most challenging about writing articles is finding the balance between what's an interesting way for me to write and sharing my info. with the reader. I'm generally asked to write about poetics and in a sea of "conventional" articles, it is always more interesting for me to write from another tonal perspective and hopefully an engaging, challenging one. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o2qXv63mI/AAAAAAAAAIk/8kI9A96jiMI/s1600-h/cover.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o2qXv63mI/AAAAAAAAAIk/8kI9A96jiMI/s320/cover.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425208802678595170" /></a><br /><br />(from boundary2.dukejournals.org)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Speaking of which, the meta-themes ideas inspired by my perusal of Philosophy Bites (and my PoliSci reminiscing) made me return to an older article I skimmed but only recently really read: economist Paul Krugman's lovely and clear commentary on the debate between economic schools, the "saltwater" versus "freshwater" analyses in his NYT article from last September "How Did Economists Get it So Wrong?" I liked it not only because I sympathize (I'm on the left side of the divide surprise, surprise) but because he alluded to a notion that's regularly brought up in Humanities circles and that is the need to "scientist-ize" (not a real word!) everything. What I mean is that sometimes I think we over-privilege scientific thought above creative thinking to "prove" we're serious. The artistic/intuitive element of any cultural discourse is central to the way we understand how the world works just as much as the rationalist side (no, I'm not advocating that we start using astrology for analyzing everything!). Krugman doesn't make this point but I do think of it when he says: "As I see it, the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth." Toward the end of the article he states: "When it comes to the all-too-human problem of recessions and depressions, economists need to abandon the neat but wrong solution of assuming that everyone is rational and markets work perfectly." The "all-too-human" and abandoning "the neat but wrong solution of assuming that everyone is rational" is what the arts, performance and humanities explore all the time. While I'm not suggesting that Paul Krugman be replaced with Eric Bogosian (same birth year), it might not hurt to hear what Bogosian has to say about the microeconomics of art. And I'm sure Mr. Mooney (same first name) has a thing or two to say about the housing bubble...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o3g-9XJ3I/AAAAAAAAAIs/9o5d4DHj_Xc/s1600-h/m.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 160px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0o3g-9XJ3I/AAAAAAAAAIs/9o5d4DHj_Xc/s320/m.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425209740916893554" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(from paulkrugman.com) <br /><br />Didn't know you'd start 2010 at Nerd Central, did ya?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0pGxKawG4I/AAAAAAAAAJc/ti0SYe7GXbw/s1600-h/images-3.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 94px; height: 125px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/S0pGxKawG4I/AAAAAAAAAJc/ti0SYe7GXbw/s400/images-3.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425226511545277314" /></a><br />(via blacknerdsnetwork.blogspot.com. Never encountered the website before but hands-down the coolest image evah!)<br />:-) <br /><br /><br />Tracie <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Essay on Man, Epistle II<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Alexander Pope</span> (excerpt)<br /><br /> I. Know, then, thyself, presume not God to scan;<br />The proper study of mankind is man.<br />Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,<br />A being darkly wise, and rudely great:<br />With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,<br />With too much weakness for the stoic’s pride,<br />He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;<br />In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;<br />In doubt his mind or body to prefer;<br />Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;<br />Alike in ignorance, his reason such,<br />Whether he thinks too little, or too much:<br />Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;<br />Still by himself abused, or disabused;<br />Created half to rise, and half to fall;<br />Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;<br />Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:<br />The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!<br /> Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,<br />Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;<br />Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,<br />Correct old time, and regulate the sun;<br />Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,<br />To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;<br />Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,<br />And quitting sense call imitating God;<br />As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,<br />And turn their heads to imitate the sun.<br />Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—<br />Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!<br /> Superior beings, when of late they saw<br />A mortal man unfold all Nature’s law,<br />Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape<br />And showed a Newton as we show an ape.<br /> Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind,<br />Describe or fix one movement of his mind?<br />Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,<br />Explain his own beginning, or his end?<br />Alas, what wonder! man’s superior part<br />Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art;<br />But when his own great work is but begun,<br />What reason weaves, by passion is undone.<br />Trace Science, then, with Modesty thy guide;<br />First strip off all her equipage of pride;<br />Deduct what is but vanity or dress,<br />Or learning’s luxury, or idleness;<br />Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,<br />Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;<br />Expunge the whole, or lop th’ excrescent parts<br />Of all our vices have created arts;<br />Then see how little the remaining sum,<br />Which served the past, and must the times to come!<br /><br /><br />(from poets.org)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-64873544984868831402009-12-20T21:04:00.023-05:002009-12-21T11:17:33.332-05:00turning year...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy76KRAlwUI/AAAAAAAAAHs/2yuYI4G_M6k/s1600-h/3129760361_446717f74c.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 261px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy76KRAlwUI/AAAAAAAAAHs/2yuYI4G_M6k/s320/3129760361_446717f74c.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417542456044798274" /></a><br /><br /><br />(via Flickr)<br /><br />Well <span style="font-style:italic;">Happy Holidays</span>. <br /><br />What an autumn, what a fall. (That word fall was too appropos from September on this year) . I swear Murphy's Law was all in 2009. (And sadly, that goes for Brittany Murphy too. How sad that such a young person has died.But passings are sad irrespective of age...) Over the last couple months I've had two family passings several computer crashings and well, let's just cut the list short there. Looking forward to winter being here for real. No puns for that season. <br /><br />I guess I could segue into "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer..." etc. but today was neither season just a peaceful day. We got our first proper snow in NY yesterday as some foreshadowing. If it had to snow, it really couldn't have been more convenient: we had enough lead time to get the remaining shopping done and it didn't really hit until the late afternoon. It's quiet (for Brooklyn anyway) and kinda nice. The snow will stay white for at least the end of the day. Tomorrow's rush hour is a whole other story...<br /><br />I was sitting here on the penultimate Sunday of 2009 thinking about the year and stumbled upon something in my iTunes folder. (I don't know about you, but I haven't listened to everything I've downloaded or transferred.) I finally heard, in its entirety, the beautiful anthology "The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music". <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7kgt7gPSI/AAAAAAAAAF8/1Rp8DEJJp9Y/s1600-h/25215543.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7kgt7gPSI/AAAAAAAAAF8/1Rp8DEJJp9Y/s320/25215543.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417518652509404450" /></a><br />(via barnesandnoble.com)<br /><br /><br />This project was embarked upon by the great Harry Belafonte in the 1950s but didn't come to fruition until this (rapidly ending) decade. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7lm6mYjQI/AAAAAAAAAGE/3RifTy26s7Q/s1600-h/Harry_Belafonte_Bonn_Germany_1981.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7lm6mYjQI/AAAAAAAAAGE/3RifTy26s7Q/s320/Harry_Belafonte_Bonn_Germany_1981.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417519858501324034" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via img.photobucket.com)<br /><br />Although he didn't put his name on the tracks or the cover, his sound is so singular, it's impossible not to know it's him coordinating things. He also included the phenomenal Gloria Lynne and the great Joe Williams among other luminaries in this 6 CD set. It's so arresting, beautiful and understatedly heart-breaking. The sense of optimism in the songs allude to the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow. <br /><br />Confluently enough, I just put in the first two words "Long Road" into iTunes to play the discs through, and at the very end of the 4+ hours of music, Robert Creeley's poem "The Long Road" played. It was such an unusual, yet completely appropriate close to hearing the anthology, that I had to pause. Not to be to self-reflective but I have to say that I felt a strong sense of being part of a long (and very winding) road: from African praise songs, to slavery songs, to the Blues and the Fisk Jubilee Singers along side Robert Creeley (but certainly not as a peer). What an interesting terrain this poetic landscape is. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7mLZ9qmyI/AAAAAAAAAGM/ITJaJ7d4l14/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 99px; height: 119px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7mLZ9qmyI/AAAAAAAAAGM/ITJaJ7d4l14/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417520485395766050" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via writing.upenn.edu)<br /><br />I guess going to two funerals kind of close together also made me think of "The Idea of Ancestry" to quote the great Etheridge Knight. Poetry makes me feel solitary often but not alone usually...<br /><br />Got back to Chi town again and snuck a peek at the Chicago Shakespeare Theaterl's Richard III. This was the first time that it really got into my head/heart how hard it is for actors to work in and at their parts. I do appreciate people getting up there. I also really do like how thoroughly the cast knows what every word means and why it's there. American actors aren't always socialized that way and I appreciate when folks on this side of the world are focused on that. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy74XEXuyeI/AAAAAAAAAHM/lhZF3AG6LPs/s1600-h/chicagoshakespeare.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 273px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy74XEXuyeI/AAAAAAAAAHM/lhZF3AG6LPs/s320/chicagoshakespeare.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417540476967242210" /></a><br /><br />(via theatreinchicago.com)<br /><br /><br /><br />Speaking of bardic stuff, Ian McKellen is reprising his role in Waiting for Godot so if you're in London, go see. (I am not putting yet another picture of IM up.) He's breath-taking. Alas, his colleague in the previous incarnation, Patrick Stewart, won't be there but McKellen is worth the ticket, he's a Gemini so go see him. I'm looking out for my peeps!<br /><br />(Because of this silly rule, I'll also be buying Clint Eastwood's new biography that I saw in the store. But that's as close to repubby as I'm gonna recommend. You can leave the Giuliani book in the remainder bin.) <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7yHI0nl_I/AAAAAAAAAG8/OMSnRunvmbE/s1600-h/directing-movie.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7yHI0nl_I/AAAAAAAAAG8/OMSnRunvmbE/s320/directing-movie.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417533606214473714" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(via MERIE W. WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images)<br /><br />This weird rule is an excuse to make myself read books I don't usually "have time for" or normally wouldn't peruse. I read Katherine Graham's autobiography (late publisher of the Washington Post), (Sir) Christopher Lee's later autobiography "Lord of Misrule" and Rupert Everett's autobiography because of this pretext. His name for the book, "Staged Beauty" also encouraged me to see the film by that title and I literally wept at the end. I love good films about acting so that was that: one degree of separation between arbitrary sun sign-ness and tears. I read other people's work too, obviously, but not often enough "for fun" as it were. Nodding toward Clint, I also love CE's work with actors and finally have "an in" with the reading of this bio. It's strictly how he works with actors, irrespective of the story. (My mother is still mystified that I know, and enjoy, Eastwood more as a director than an actor. Generational thing. And my Mom's a Sagittarius: I read Kenneth Branaugh's autobiography to understand "her people". (Okay, that's not really the reason.) I do not, however, need encouragement to read archers Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle's though, so put out autobiographies guys!) <br /><br />Well, performance talk always perks me up which is good. I was getting too somber and introspective after humbling myself the work of Mr. Belafonte and the subject matter he works with. Here's to looking forward with clear eyes and good inspiration.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7ua39xzrI/AAAAAAAAAGs/IYdOSo61m6o/s1600-h/1184085088P0I59u.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy7ua39xzrI/AAAAAAAAAGs/IYdOSo61m6o/s320/1184085088P0I59u.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417529547240361650" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I wish all my family, friends and students (past and present) happy new year and congrats for making it through another one. Lots and lots of people with many advantages did not. It has been a very intense year for everyone including our planet as the climate change talks in Copenhagen, concluded last week, indicate. <br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy755wSs4rI/AAAAAAAAAHk/t1p7D8e-z0Q/s1600-h/INDIA_CLIMATE_CHANGE_6120f.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy755wSs4rI/AAAAAAAAAHk/t1p7D8e-z0Q/s320/INDIA_CLIMATE_CHANGE_6120f.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417542172384486066" /></a><br /><br />(via beta.thehindu.com)<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">See you in the '10s</span>,<br />Tracie <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Idea of Ancestry </span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Etheridge Knight</span><br />(via Poets.org)<br /><br />1<br /><br />Taped to the wall of my cell are 47 pictures: 47 black<br />faces: my father, mother, grandmothers (1 dead), grand-<br />fathers (both dead), brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts,<br />cousins (1st and 2nd), nieces, and nephews. They stare<br />across the space at me sprawling on my bunk. I know<br />their dark eyes, they know mine. I know their style,<br />they know mine. I am all of them, they are all of me;<br />they are farmers, I am a thief, I am me, they are thee.<br /><br />I have at one time or another been in love with my mother,<br />1 grandmother, 2 sisters, 2 aunts (1 went to the asylum),<br />and 5 cousins. I am now in love with a 7-yr-old niece<br />(she sends me letters in large block print, and<br />her picture is the only one that smiles at me).<br /><br />I have the same name as 1 grandfather, 3 cousins, 3 nephews,<br />and 1 uncle. The uncle disappeared when he was 15, just took<br />off and caught a freight (they say). He's discussed each year<br />when the family has a reunion, he causes uneasiness in <br />the clan, he is an empty space. My father's mother, who is 93<br />and who keeps the Family Bible with everbody's birth dates<br />(and death dates) in it, always mentions him. There is no<br />place in her Bible for "whereabouts unknown."<br /> <br />2<br /><br />Each fall the graves of my grandfathers call me, the brown<br />hills and red gullies of mississippi send out their electric<br />messages, galvanizing my genes. Last yr/like a salmon quitting<br />the cold ocean-leaping and bucking up his birth stream/I<br />hitchhiked my way from LA with 16 caps in my pocket and a <br />monkey on my back. And I almost kicked it with the kinfolks.<br />I walked barefooted in my grandmother's backyard/I smelled the <br /> old<br />land and the woods/I sipped cornwhiskey from fruit jars with the <br /> men/<br />I flirted with the women/I had a ball till the caps ran out<br />and my habit came down. That night I looked at my grandmother<br />and split/my guts were screaming for junk/but I was almost <br />contented/I had almost caught up with me.<br />(The next day in Memphis I cracked a croaker's crib for a fix.)<br /><br />This yr there is a gray stone wall damming my stream, and when<br />the falling leaves stir my genes, I pace my cell or flop on my bunk<br />and stare at 47 black faces across the space. I am all of them,<br />they are all of me, I am me, they are thee, and I have no children<br />to float in the space between.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Big qualifier here: I don't have this poem in print. This is how I heard it though after hearing "The Long Road to Freed</span>om". Take this as a typographical interpretation of Creeley. Despite my flaws, his beauty comes through and again, is a wonderful coda, this time after Etheridge.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Long Road <br />by Robert Creeley (as I heard it)</span><br /><br />The Long Road: The Long Road of it all <br />is an echo, a sound like an image expanding<br />frames growing one after one in ascending or <br />descending order. All of us arising, falling <br />thought and explosion of emptiness soon forgotten. <br /><br />As a kid I wondered, where do they go<br />My father dead the place had a faded dustiness<br />despite the woods and all. We all grew up. <br />I see our faces in old school pictures. <br />Where are we now?Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-10118467496664731132009-09-22T12:40:00.019-04:002009-09-22T18:06:16.127-04:00Happy Autumn!Well, yours truly had one heck of a summer. Back in London with my nose to the grindstone and turning a new corner as is my wont. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.journeyetc.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/london_lead_image1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 380px;" src="http://www.journeyetc.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/london_lead_image1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t thisislondon.co.uk)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I was, to steal from the Beatles, "workin' like a dog" and didn't get to see my UK friends I'm ashamed to say. Busy bee. I only had a minute to have a little fun one sunday and see the amazing Waiting for Godot directed by Sean Mattias with Patrick Stewart (got an autograph!) and Ian McKellan (omg!). It was a great, great show. And Beckett's writing...that left me happy in and of itself. The performances were like the icing and cherry on top of a delectable cake! (and I win the award for corniest simile in a blog!) Yeah, a bit gushy but it was really wonderful. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/godot.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 382px;" src="http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/godot.png" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t mckellen.com)<br /><br /><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 563px;" src="http://webhost.bridgew.edu/drichards/Cornwall_London/Night_pub.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Despite my long-standing disdain for the weather and the food, I've fallen in love with the city this time and the weather was better than NY's June July and August so the natives here tell me. I also have to say, pubs rock. Totally different from the bar scene in the US irrespective of locale -- okay I'm not a drinker but I can still tell! <br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t bridgew.edu -- Bridgewater State College website)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> ~~~~~~~~<br /><br /><br />Home again, school's back in and my students are lovely. Feel like I'm finally settling into the semester. I enjoyed London as I said, when I got off the plane... realized how much I missed Brooklyn's habits and inhabitants. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dumbonyc.com/images/blog/brooklyn_fugheddaboudit.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 346px; height: 347px;" src="http://dumbonyc.com/images/blog/brooklyn_fugheddaboudit.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t dumbonyc.com)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />My hometown was in full force during the Brooklyn Book Festival. What a huge event! The annual Brooklyn Festival ("BoBi") award winner this year is Edwidge Danticat -- now MacAuthur genius -- Edwidge Dandicat, who was there with her family. I recall using excerpts from Breath, Eyes, Memory for a class years ago and the students were quite moved by it. Couldn't happen to a lovelier writer. She lived in Brooklyn for a while, too. This borough is a lucky charm, in my humble opinion. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.timeoutnewyork.com/resizeImage/htdocs/export_images/623/623.x600.ft.fp.books.danti.jpg?"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 600px; height: 897px;" src="http://media.timeoutnewyork.com/resizeImage/htdocs/export_images/623/623.x600.ft.fp.books.danti.jpg?" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />(h/t New York Timeout.com)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SrkTLi1S0KI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/NSBAwgn-aqs/s1600-h/n20650359836_667615_4784.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SrkTLi1S0KI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/NSBAwgn-aqs/s320/n20650359836_667615_4784.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384355918547964066" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t Brooklyn Book Festival official Facebook site)<br /><br /><br />I was on a panel at the festival with a great group, very eclectic: rapper Lupe Fiasco, a very smart cookie, rebellious writer Matthew Zapruder, the well-read, sharp, and yes, really tall Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and little, much shorter me. Rob Casper from Poetry Society of America kicked off the conversation which was then moderated by culture maven Toure. It was super fun and the audience was really excellent. Very nice mix of folks from hoity-toity poetry types to slam kids to celebrity admirers and journalists. I was impressed by them. <br /><br />Also stopped by the gathering for a great new anthology called Poetry and Cultural Studies: A Reader edited by Maria Damon and Ira Livingston. it's a wonderful, helpful book that'll really contributes to both fields of Cultural Studies and Poetics. <br /><br /><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 99px; height: 150px;" src="http://img.flipkart.com/bk_imgs/084/9780252076084.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />(h/t flipkart.com) <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Hmmm...what else? Miscellany: My mother made me watch (by buying me the first two seasons on DVD) Mad Men, so now I've joined the rest of humanity. It's a well-crafted show. Nice to see something besides reality tv on basic cable.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://electricityandlust.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/mad-men-silouhette.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 426px; height: 313px;" src="http://electricityandlust.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/mad-men-silouhette.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(h/t biggest mirror blog) <br /><br /><br />Got a couple articles coming out in various publications soon and being a horrible publicist of my own work, will try to let y'all know about them. Writing, gigging and stuff. Now that I'm back back, as we say, I'll be checking in more regularly. See you 'round this web. <br /><br />xo, <br />Tracie<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How like a winter hath my absence been (Sonnet 97)</span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by William Shakespeare</span><br /><br />How like a winter hath my absence been <br />From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! <br />What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! <br />What old December’s bareness every where! <br />And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time;<br />The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, <br />Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, <br />Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease: <br />Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me <br />But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;<br />For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, <br />And, thou away, the very birds are mute: <br /> Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer, <br /> That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.<br /><br /><br />(h/t poets.org)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-74295935618683825252009-08-09T23:41:00.003-04:002009-09-22T15:09:23.080-04:00summer blog break...(quick note post I been meaning to send. no pix so I can get it out of my draft box but I'll make up for it in the subsequent post!) <br /><br />Away doin' some more learnin' this summer. Does it ever end? Nope. Not if, like me, you know there is more you need to learn... in merry old England where my (philosophical) beloved, JL Austin rests in peace, icons RADA, the Globe, the West End, Southbank... all that stuff reside. I think, with the exception of the newly expanded London City, I've used all of the airports around London. (Heathrow's the worst.) <br /><br />While at the library I went to see the Henry VIII exhibit at the British Library (too much of The Tudors tv show, probably -- I swear I have had enough of that man and *his* drama). <br /><br />Know what sight actually choked me up though? Seriously? Seeing a copy of the Magna Carta. That joint was deep! Also at the British Library. It was also really nice to see the Shakespeare stuff. Luckily for me, it was my second time seeing a Gutenberg Bible. (Yale's Beinecke Library has one in glorious display) so I can say I've seen that on two continents, but that Magna Carta -- really was something. Not much of it is relevant today since it focused on concretizing aspects of feudal law but this is the part that really stands out:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled . nor will we proceed with force against him . except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.</span><br /><br />(excerpt from the highlighted portion presented at the British Library)<br /><br />For a while, we got so close to this being rescinded by the capricious will of a dubious leader. I know we're supposed to be all "let bygones be bygones" now that we have a new President but when I saw that copy it reminded me of how dangerously close to the-end-of-everything we got. <br /><br />Now I *know* that this touching Magna Carta-type deal isn't quite as concrete for some of us as it is for others. I know that. But for all human rights efforts one of our greatest weapons have been the *inconsistentcy* between law and practice. If the laws on the books are insane (and so many of them remain -- developed throughout the past eight years or earlier -- and must be rescinded immediately) it's really hard to appeal to the equal rights based on the contradictions between law and practice. <br /><br />coda: I mean, y'all see how crazy folks are acting just bringing out the KKK in hicksville. Fortunately, that Chicago hawk makes tough hides on the residents. As they say "God willin' and the creek don't rise", the Prez will get it goin' and struggling folks'll have some healthcare and other inalienable rights.Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-63142827677648639572009-05-30T19:08:00.007-04:002009-05-30T20:17:31.020-04:00catch as catch can..Whew! Just made the end of the month for a bloggie note. <br /><br />Hanging out with buddies before traipsing around this summer. Running a bit and saw a few good things. I even have pix I (mostly) took myself. That's not necessarily a good thing as I'm not a photographer, but oh well. (The photos w/o attribution are ones I took.)<br /><br />Put my hard hat on and hung out at another poetry house -- not in Philly this time -- the soon-to-be-new-home of New York's Poets' House. It's really impressive and I even have a few pix of Executive Director Lee Bricetti with her construction chapeau:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiG-NYl2g9I/AAAAAAAAAEI/XinnVXIQc3Y/s1600-h/IMG_0786.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiG-NYl2g9I/AAAAAAAAAEI/XinnVXIQc3Y/s320/IMG_0786.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341759770186908626" /></a><br /><br />As you can see, she's <span style="font-style:italic;">very </span>involved in the project! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHI9oTy3wI/AAAAAAAAAFI/PbRpLgOgEEI/s1600-h/IMG_0803.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHI9oTy3wI/AAAAAAAAAFI/PbRpLgOgEEI/s320/IMG_0803.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341771594156138242" /></a><br /><br />After we saw that amazing space, one of my good friends and I stopped by another one: the beautiful, intense and word-centric art piece, the Irish Hunger Memorial. it's really something. I urge you to see it, and read through it. The memorial not only references famine that killed thousands in Ireland but the nature of people, places, governments to allow people to starve all over the world. it's in a great conversation with the new Poets' House home as it conveys how powerfully words reverberate. A real masterpiece -- and free to visit, roam around and touch. The pix below really don't do it justice but are more of a teaser:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHAlwnMCxI/AAAAAAAAAEg/NlZKXF89oMM/s1600-h/IMG_0814.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHAlwnMCxI/AAAAAAAAAEg/NlZKXF89oMM/s320/IMG_0814.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341762387975080722" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHAlimpAUI/AAAAAAAAAEY/E_kfgB9ej9U/s1600-h/IMG_0811.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHAlimpAUI/AAAAAAAAAEY/E_kfgB9ej9U/s320/IMG_0811.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341762384214688066" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHAlYFbkUI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/CFHCJhLnf4A/s1600-h/IMG_0810.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHAlYFbkUI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/CFHCJhLnf4A/s320/IMG_0810.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341762381391040834" /></a><br /><br /><br />It was a Manhattany day. We ended up in the West Village and walked right past this living monument: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHBxbLdmPI/AAAAAAAAAEw/IhAua-X0QsY/s1600-h/IMG_0816.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHBxbLdmPI/AAAAAAAAAEw/IhAua-X0QsY/s320/IMG_0816.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341763687891704050" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHBxIdt8mI/AAAAAAAAAEo/ou3i1qBFx9s/s1600-h/IMG_0815.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHBxIdt8mI/AAAAAAAAAEo/ou3i1qBFx9s/s320/IMG_0815.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341763682867999330" /></a><br /><br />With all this DOMA (that's Defense of Marriage Act for you non-wonky folks) dueling banjos ads going around, walking past or at least actually noticing the Stonewall Inn for the first time reminds me of how recent all this discourse is. Personally, I think New York attitude will win out over NY conservatism (esp. upstate) and we'll have same-sex marriage here. Yes, there are conservatives in the state but I suspect that no one here sees them being trumped by Iowa on anything that's not agrarian (and even on that level, we've got lots of farms outside of the 5 boroughs). When I saw the movie Milk (yes, Penn shoulda won that Oscar) it just reminded me of the historic era we're in. I mean, I remember those clothes! (Yes, I was young but I do remember them, I even wore the tike versions.) <br /><br />Speaking of great, touching, morally-relevant films, I *just* saw the super excellent "Up" movie by Pixar. (Those of you who know I'm a goofy Harry Potter fan will not be surprised that I went to see an animated picture.) It was so good! Super touching, lots of great lessons/reminders for kids and adults and expertly done. Pixar is not joking! I've enjoyed every single one of their films that I've seen. Very moving and lovely economy of language. I even shed a tear or two. I'm no Roger Ebert (even though he is a Gemini and carries the sign well) so I won't presume a fancy review but go see. And it was great to hear Ed Asner! Talk about the 70s...I remember him from the Lou Grant days and he's an excellent actor and unapologetic lefty. Dude is mad old school. It's funny: he does look like the character in UP (without glasses) at this point in his life: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHGV3JsCbI/AAAAAAAAAFA/1gK0N4H_HjU/s1600-h/Up-Carl-Fredricksen-1846.jpg.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHGV3JsCbI/AAAAAAAAAFA/1gK0N4H_HjU/s320/Up-Carl-Fredricksen-1846.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341768711922256306" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHGVkVVt-I/AAAAAAAAAE4/2wRhBySAlM4/s1600-h/%7B3622A63F-1613-4F6B-B195-3C09DC46E0CA%7D.JPG.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SiHGVkVVt-I/AAAAAAAAAE4/2wRhBySAlM4/s320/%7B3622A63F-1613-4F6B-B195-3C09DC46E0CA%7D.JPG.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341768706870851554" /></a><br /><br />(h/t http://www.wallpaperez.net and http://www.eldercarerights.org/) <br /><br />I realize I'm not only talking about the 1970s but, folks in *their* 70s. Asner graduating the 7th decade and will actually be hitting 80 this year. May I live so long as they say (and as vigorously)...<br /><br />xo, <br />Tracie<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lines on Retirement, after Reading Lear</span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by David Wright</span><br /><br />for Richard Pacholski<br /><br />Avoid storms. And retirement parties.<br />You can’t trust the sweetnesses your friends will<br />offer, when they really want your office,<br />which they’ll redecorate. Beware the still<br />untested pension plan. Keep your keys. Ask<br />for more troops than you think you’ll need. Listen<br />more to fools and less to colleagues. Love your<br />youngest child the most, regardless. Back to<br />storms: dress warm, take a friend, don’t eat the grass,<br />don’t stand near tall trees, and keep the yelling<br />down—the winds won’t listen, and no one will<br />see you in the dark. It’s too hard to hear<br />you over all the thunder. But you’re not<br />Lear, except that we can’t stop you from what<br />you’ve planned to do. In the end, no one leaves<br />the stage in character—we never see<br />the feather, the mirror held to our lips.<br />So don’t wait for skies to crack with sun. Feel<br />the storm’s sweet sting invade you to the skin,<br />the strange, sore comforts of the wind. Embrace<br />your children’s ragged praise and that of friends.<br />Go ahead, take it off, take it all off.<br />Run naked into tempests. Weave flowers<br />into your hair. Bellow at cataracts.<br />If you dare, scream at the gods. Babble as<br />if you thought words could save. Drink rain like cold<br />beer. So much better than making theories.<br />We’d all come with you, laughing, if we could.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(h/t poets.org)</span>Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-84218085173560975442009-05-22T00:14:00.002-04:002009-05-25T14:53:48.976-04:00Dag, the month is flying!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/ShrkZpRUo2I/AAAAAAAAAD4/DMCKcTFoV74/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 124px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/ShrkZpRUo2I/AAAAAAAAAD4/DMCKcTFoV74/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339831437427516258" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(h/t stuffingtown.com)</span><br /><br />Well looks like it took almost up to Memorial Day for Spring to spring up before summer. Nice weather in NYC. I'm sad that more than a few students had terrible convocation weather. Ah well. The main thing is that it's done. I got to hang out at a few fun student events at Pratt Institute and UPenn. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/ShrkDn3GLvI/AAAAAAAAADw/A1tKzn8XuQo/s1600-h/woman-PETA-human-barbeque.jpg.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/ShrkDn3GLvI/AAAAAAAAADw/A1tKzn8XuQo/s320/woman-PETA-human-barbeque.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339831059091959538" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(h/t www.treehugger.com)</span><br /><br />Apparently, no Memorial Day weekend is complete without a Barbecue (with a capital B) and I had the occasion to get to one this weekend. Fun, groovy with folks I haven't seen for years. Slowly emerging from my underground thing after years of school and writing. Trying to get the band out there, too. Time to get movin'...<br /><br />Heading out to the cooler and less delectable climes as I do every summer -- and spring is finally hitting the city! There was a little article in the NYT about people taking 'staycations' and even though I won't be one of the stayers, the comments other people made invoked some nostalgia: I remember when my brother turned some young teen year, he came up with the good idea of taking a tour of the city. Because we were little, we got into quite a few things for free(the Toussaut's Wax Museum was in the Empire State Building) because folks thought we were somebody's kids! <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Shrk7_btwDI/AAAAAAAAAEA/B1IfgT_9nEE/s1600-h/images-1.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 97px; height: 133px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Shrk7_btwDI/AAAAAAAAAEA/B1IfgT_9nEE/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339832027492237362" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(h/t www.kilroymetal.com)</span><br /><br />With people bbq'ing, the Statue of Liberty's head getting open and the waterfront abuzz, I'm going to miss my hometown even more than usual. I'll try to sneak in another quick note before the month's out. Just one for May has got to get a little dap for coming through in the home stretch. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/ShrjEcVqeoI/AAAAAAAAADo/vXlWpZAJG_k/s1600-h/playground.jpg.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 174px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/ShrjEcVqeoI/AAAAAAAAADo/vXlWpZAJG_k/s320/playground.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339829973667183234" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(h/t brooklynbridgepark.org)</span><br /><br />xo,<br />T<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Gnosis </span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Theodore Worozbyt</span><br /><br />Turns out the radiologist didn't know thing one about radios. I stood there in my stocking feet and waited for the music to begin again. Being generally good with small motors I would mow and mow the lawn stoically with a white hand towel draped around my neck. I was stimulated by the reports of the optical scienteers. Because of the particular reflective and refractive qualities inherent in the molecular structure of the chlorophyll molecule, the wavelength perceived by the human eye as green is in fact repulsed by grass. Thus grass is all other colors. Impossible, impossible! was the catarrh violently discharging itself in the chambers of my thoughts. Grass and vert are green. Reading is black surrounded by white. If not, what? A barely perceptible hum underfoot that turns out to be electricity or some other invisible fluid? A basket heaped with unadjusted watches? The forests filled with white tigers. Fire came from god's beard. The sun rolled, a chariot wheel flaring its treads across the clouds. Starlight: angelic punctuation on the carbon paper of midnight. New York City sewers crawled with titanic alligators before debunkers in rubber boots stepped in. President Somebody was smoking an Egyptian cigarette and several papers didn't get signed before the prognosis began to resemble a trumpet: something gold around a hole.<br /><br /><br />(h/t poets.org)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-35085945133779629572009-04-30T22:59:00.017-04:002009-05-01T00:29:39.073-04:00April showers bring...staying in and watching moviesComing in under the wire with April! The last day. It's been wet and more than a bit windy with big weather swings in Apple-town. Hope that means great flowers for May. <br /><br />Got around a little bit this month: saw a really lovely independent film that won an award at Cannes in 2006 called "Luxury Car" at the Asia Society. It's from China and has some gorgeous acting and judicious direction. If you want to check it out yourself, here's a link to a clip:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.linktv.org/programs/gl_luxurycar">http://www.linktv.org/programs/gl_luxurycar</a><br /><br />The version I saw was originally subtitled in French so if you speak that language this poster will make even more sense:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpoHsOYyII/AAAAAAAAACQ/nAXAwVLegGU/s1600-h/200px-Luxury_Car_poster.jpg.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpoHsOYyII/AAAAAAAAACQ/nAXAwVLegGU/s320/200px-Luxury_Car_poster.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330687590286280834" /></a><br /><br />Speaking of films, hick that I am, I *finally* saw two Shakespeare classics I've been meaning to catch up with: Julius Caesar with the luminous Marlon Brando and the astounding James Mason (and the great John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr, etc. everyone was rockin' it) and Laurence Olivier in Merchant of Venice. Just blown out of the water with the performances. Olivier's final utterance/lament at the end of the trial was just haunting and he showed a tremendous amount of restraint and grief throughout the film. Dude was not to be messed with! (That's him with the top hat. I haven't exactly *mastered* the blog photo thing so that's the best I could get of that picture, okay?) <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpuWK2QHMI/AAAAAAAAACg/FjxOwW7ZENU/s1600-h/images-2.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 101px; height: 130px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpuWK2QHMI/AAAAAAAAACg/FjxOwW7ZENU/s320/images-2.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330694436094483650" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sfpuir4ZXYI/AAAAAAAAACo/EAlrrt4--jQ/s1600-h/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 98px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sfpuir4ZXYI/AAAAAAAAACo/EAlrrt4--jQ/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330694651120278914" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpyvLzyVaI/AAAAAAAAADQ/682e4SxZ8rU/s1600-h/images-3.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 91px; height: 118px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpyvLzyVaI/AAAAAAAAADQ/682e4SxZ8rU/s320/images-3.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330699263895819682" /></a><br /><br />That made me go into the wayback machine and pull out the good old Richard III with Ian McKellen (whose MacBeth with Judi Dench I also saw not too long ago). <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpvVevrd9I/AAAAAAAAADA/6FTG7ttn6Lw/s1600-h/I_76_T75876_B8_m.jpg.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 208px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpvVevrd9I/AAAAAAAAADA/6FTG7ttn6Lw/s320/I_76_T75876_B8_m.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330695523767384018" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpvHz5lnZI/AAAAAAAAAC4/4MXSfqNL50c/s1600-h/mckellen-richard+iii.jpg.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpvHz5lnZI/AAAAAAAAAC4/4MXSfqNL50c/s320/mckellen-richard+iii.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330695288927919506" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Folks know I'm into the old school Brit drama (I, Claudius with Derek Jacobi and Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson were forever etched in my mind as a child. Yay for PBS and constant re-runs!). I've seen just enough of the less-than-successful adaptations of that stuff to really love it when it works on stage or screen (big or small). Super duper gorgeous.<br /><br /><br /><br />If you want to see some great send-ups through (let's not be too precious about Will), my colleague Nelson hipped me to this hilarious clip of Peter Sellers doing Richard III doing the Beetle's "Hard Day's Night" that was chuckle-worthy in it's drollness: <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sfp1edWcJMI/AAAAAAAAADY/4VN7XOSVeN4/s1600-h/images-4.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 87px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sfp1edWcJMI/AAAAAAAAADY/4VN7XOSVeN4/s320/images-4.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330702275081675970" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLongUBPm5Y"></a><br />and who can forget that Emmy award winning turn of *Sir* Derek Jacobi making fun of his own (*beautiful*) original BBC Hamlet on Frasier?: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sfp2Gp6Z17I/AAAAAAAAADg/t7h6n7m5Q0E/s1600-h/images-5.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 84px; height: 101px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sfp2Gp6Z17I/AAAAAAAAADg/t7h6n7m5Q0E/s320/images-5.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330702965648512946" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43ilXxZz1RU"></a><br />*Everytime* I see these joints I have to laugh. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(If you don't see 2 links immediately above, just two pix, something's not working with the blog but be sure to google them! Youtube has the clips!)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />So, as you may detect from the many stills I've been indoors and i<span style="font-style:italic;">t has been raining a lot here...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">But,</span> one one of the few lovely evenings, I got a chance to see one of my buddies' bands play, Marvin Sewell's group. They were really great, fabulous really, and shared the bill with Jeff Lee Johnson (whom I'm ashamed to say I didn't know but was really moved by). Marvin urged us to see Johnson's band and I'm so glad I did! <br /><br />Marvin's crew was hitting it and, if you know Marv you know he's not exactly a talker, but he was quite conversational that night...I have to say I learned some stuff about him I didn't know before -- and I've known 'him for more than 15 years! He had the ever-ready and deservedly in-demand bass player Jerome Harris (who I also have known since forever), keeping it lockety-locked. <br /><br />M. Sewell's a low-key kinda dude as this picture sorta indicates. But he was workin' them strings:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpsjKYtcPI/AAAAAAAAACY/MjtFH4N2jrU/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 121px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SfpsjKYtcPI/AAAAAAAAACY/MjtFH4N2jrU/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330692460285620466" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Extra thumbnail pictures for being extra in the house this month! Now that spring is hopefully springing, there may be less so this should hold ya. Modern China, Old fashioned/adapted Shakes and cool newfangled music. Not a bad month to leave! See y'all with a poem (or two):<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">a woman had placed </span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Anne Blonstein</span><br /><br />after jorge luis borges<br /><br />a yellow rose<br />in a hotel glass<br />the man had kissed her<br />on the neck<br />had kissed her<br />on the mouth<br /><br />but these kisses belonged to yesterday<br />there would be no moment<br />of revernalization<br /><br />yellow roses came from china<br />open in may before our hybrids<br />unfold pink rugosities and baroque scent<br />expose dusty fissured yellow pearls<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Concordance [Our conversation is a wing]</span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge</span><br /><br />Our conversation is a wing below my consciousness, like organization in blowing cloth, eddies of water, its order of light on film with no lens.<br /><br />A higher resonance of story finds its way to higher organization: data swirl into group dreams.<br /><br />Then story surfaces, as if recognized; flies buzzing in your room suddenly translate to "Oh! You're crying!"<br /><br />So, here I hug the old person, who's not "light" until I embrace him.<br /><br />My happiness at seeing him, my French suit constitute at the interface of wing and occasion.<br /><br />Postulate whether the friendship is fulfilling.<br /><br />Reduce by small increments your worry about the nature of compassion or the chill of emotional identification among girlfriends, your wish to be held in the consciousness of another, like a person waiting for you to wake.<br /><br />Postulate the wave nature of wanting him to wait (white space) and the quanta of fractal conflict, point to point, along the outline of a petal, shore from a small boat.<br /><br />Words spoken with force create particles.<br /><br />He calls the location of accidents a morphic field; their recurrence is resonance, as of an archetype with the vibration of a seed.<br /><br />My last thoughts were bitter and helpless.<br /><br />Friends witnessing grief enter your consciousness, illuminating your form, so quiet comes.Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-40920420726756049282009-04-05T14:15:00.010-04:002009-12-21T11:15:05.676-05:00March showers, April flowers and smiles!Hey Bunnies!<br /><br />April's here and I see a little green outside of my window. Yay!<br /><br />So I've been keeping busy, last place outside of Brooklyn (and occasionally Manhattan) I've been to was Arizona -- nice landscape. I love the scrappy unusual plants there. It's almost like being on the balmy moon. <br /><br />I, finally, thanks to my buddy Carlos Gallegos at U of A, put a toe into Mexico. I've always been very embarrassed by the fact that I've (very luckily) been to several countries on all the land masses that aren't mainly ice and hadn't yet been to the other country that is attached to this one. Seriously, I felt like a real hick. Still do but at least I hung out for a moment in the border town(s) of Nogales, ate a little, contributed to the economy (e.g. shopped) a little and disabused myself of the stereotypes of constant OK Corral drama whenever Mexico has been mentioned in the news lately. Can't really give myself props for being, as we used to say, "all up in Mexico" but at least I can't completely hold my head in shame -- about visiting Mexico at least. Picked up a sundress and made me think that one day soon it may even be warm enough wear it! <br /><br />Is that warm sunlight I see in the horizon of the Nogales vendors? <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy-esjsvDbI/AAAAAAAAAH0/dEzeFWhMzyU/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 143px; height: 95px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/Sy-esjsvDbI/AAAAAAAAAH0/dEzeFWhMzyU/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417723365084302770" /></a><br /><br /><br />(I didn't take this picture. See the url: http://azjdjcg.com/NogalesMexico503.jpg) <br /><br />Now time feels fleeting as it always does when spring really gets to springing and I'm looking forward to a lovely, rigorous summer. <br /><br />Since it's Sunday I snuck a peek at the style sections and all I saw was first lady pix. She's so adorably Amazonian! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SdkAxCZUhlI/AAAAAAAAABw/7SRNADFTLNU/s1600-h/85792156.jpg.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 202px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SdkAxCZUhlI/AAAAAAAAABw/7SRNADFTLNU/s320/85792156.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321285277171615314" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Photo by Pascal Le Segretain /Getty Images<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I was thinking both she and Mrs. Sarkozy wear flats for the same reasons -- so they won't be taller than their hubbies. But Barack O is over 6 feet, and Nicholas S is 5'5" ... irony much? (Hey, whatever works. I'm in no position to comment on height!)<br /><br />I know I'm supposed to be all closeted about my fashion jones but I mainly look and don't touch, especially in this economy. So I'll go on: one of the things I don't get about the kerfuffle regarding Michelle O's clothes is clearly she's sending a message about modesty while the economy is doing so badly. Hence the J Crew mixing and lower key designers. I mean, like, 'hello?'. <br /><br />Every once in a while she'll brand it out but I think she's trying to send a down with hyper-consumerism message just like the Pres. is. Now Oscar de la Renta is hatin' and opinionatin' on behalf of the couture crowd b/c *they* want to get the money that the First Couple usually bestows on designers. But let's just say that's what it's about: their bottom lines. My brother, oddly (because he could care less about clothes) hipped me to this piece and it is so cold-hearted a diss, I was kinda stunned. Then I applauded: <br /><br />http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/4/716393/-Whites-Only-Designers-Reap-What-They-Sew-w-Mrs.-O-(POLL)<br /><br />You can read the longer version yourself. The thumbnail is: why are all these designers complaining that this famous Black woman isn't wearing their clothes when they don't hire Black models? How can she even *see* herself in them? .... Ooops! the blogger went to church on 'em. No punches pulled. Worse was the excuse that some of them made that there aren't any Black models around. I mean that's ridiculous. I know some Black models and I don't even really *know* models! <br /><br />Catch up with the rest of the millennium designers! <br /><br />Anywho...I have been running into buddies I haven't seen in dog's years while out of town. Like Carlos, Kazim Ali, Kimiko Hahn and Fred Moten. Good to see faces in places...met some new folks since I've been back that opened up my peeps: Saw two thought-provoking lectures on photography icw academic duties. <br /><br />One by the fashion photographer Miles Aldridge (segue, segue) at the ICP. My hipster arty students were full of meta-narrative comments about his latest book, particularly about how women were 'framed' as well as how he presented his family at the end of the talk. Quite the stimulating discussion. The attention to tone and color in the pictures was extraordinary and lush. I have to say that I enjoyed it most when he discussed the technique used in considering the film stock, cameras, background. The nuts-and-bolts stuff. We juxtaposed his 'intent' w/ Barthes relationship to 'intent' in Camera Lucida and it was really a nice contrast. Not totally fair I suppose since Barthes is a philosopher not a photographer but I think Barthes had the unfair advantage, as it were. <br /><br />Aldridge did come across as a pretty amiable fellow as he signed books. Not a friend, but friendly!<br /><br />I then had the pleasure of participating in a great conversation along with other eggheads (saying it with love!) and Susan Meiselas the very verite photographer, famous for, among other things, her work in Nicaragua during the war, her latest book on the idea of Kurdistan (conceptual mapping, Carlos?) and the controversy between her and Joy Garnett and Joywar. There's so much that can be said about Meiselas' work as a metaphor of journalism, fame, derivation, 'sampling' and community. Read around on line and see what folks are saying. Even though I'm not a visual person, gave me tons to think about and see. <br /><br />For the rest of the spring, i'm getting some rest in the spring. No insane weekly traveling and conference talking. Planehopping is super cool, but only in doses. i miss Brooklyn. <br /><br />Even walked across the bridge this week. Nothing else like it. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SdkER-11ZRI/AAAAAAAAAB4/WL_dM9BfSC0/s1600-h/20_brooklyn_bridge_lg.jpg.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 259px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SdkER-11ZRI/AAAAAAAAAB4/WL_dM9BfSC0/s320/20_brooklyn_bridge_lg.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321289141688034578" /></a><br /><br /><br />This poem is a bit longer than usual but a very nice 'slant' summary:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Bridge, Palm Sunday, 1973</span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Alfred Corn</span><br /><br />I<span style="font-style:italic;">t avails not. time nor place—distance avails not. . . <br /> —Whitman. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"</span><br /> <br />The bridge was a huge sentence diagram, <br />You and I the compound subject, moving <br />Toward the verb. We stopped, breathing <br />Balloonfuls of air; and noonday sun sent down <br />A hard spray of light. Sensing an occasion,<br />I put my arm on your shoulder, my friend <br />And brother. Words, today, took the form of actions. <br /><br />The object of the pilgrimage, 110 Columbia Heights,<br />Where Hart Crane once lived, no longer existed, <br />We learned, torn down, the physical address gone. <br />A second possible tribute was to read his Proem <br />There on the Promenade in sight of the theme. <br />That line moved you about the bedlamite whose shirt <br />Balloons as he drops into the river, much like <br />Crane's death, though he wasn't a "bedlamite"; <br />A dreamer, maybe who called on Whitman and clasped <br />His present hand, as if to build a bridge across time. . . . <br /><br />We hadn't imagined happenstance would lead us next<br />To join with the daydreamers lined up before <br />An Easter diorama of duck eggs, hatching <br />Behind plate glass. The intended sentiment featured <br />Feathered skeletons racked with spasms of pecking <br />Against resistant shell, struggling out of dim <br />Solitary into incandescence and gravity, and quaking <br />With the shock of sound and sight as though existence <br />Were a nervous disease. All newborns receive the same <br />Sentence—birth, death, equivalent triumphs. <br /> <br />Two deaf-mutes walked back the same but inverse way, <br />Fatigue making strangers of us and the afternoon <br />Hurt, like sunburn. Overexposure is a constant <br />Risk of sensation and of company. I wondered <br />Why we were together—is friendship imaginary? <br />And does imagination obscure or reveal its subject? <br />The ties always feel strange, strung along happenstance, <br />Following no diagram, incomplete, a bridge of suspense. . . .<br /><br /> Sometimes completed things revisited still resonate. <br />I'm thinking about Crane's poem of the Bridge, <br />Grand enough to inspire disbelief and to suspend it. <br />The truth may lie in imagining a connection <br />With him or with you; with anyone able to overlook <br />Distance, shrug off time, on the right occasion. . . . <br /><br />If I called him a brother—help me with this, Hart—<br />Who climbed toward light and sensation until the sky <br />Broke open to reveal an acute, perfect convergence <br />Before letting him fall back into error and mortality, <br />Would we be joined with him and the voyagers before him? <br />Would a new sentence be pronounced, a living connection <br />Between island and island, for a second, be made? <br /><br />(from poets.org) <br /><br /><br /><br />Oh and for those who observe: Got this from the IHC website. Super soul-stirring gospel music on the page: http://www.ihc-cog.org/<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SdkHNHIH7BI/AAAAAAAAACI/xPD1FwkYPH0/s1600-h/Palm_Sunday.jpg.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SdkHNHIH7BI/AAAAAAAAACI/xPD1FwkYPH0/s320/Palm_Sunday.jpg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321292356547767314" /></a>Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-78206581539956469962009-03-21T20:37:00.005-04:002009-03-23T08:40:11.295-04:00springing?Heya Bunnies:<br /><br />Been running around like a lil old nut! 3 cities in 3 weeks and on to #4. Been having fun traveling but now the cold bug (a.k.a. too many airplanes) has grounded me for the weekend...I'll live. <br /><br />Sunny and pleasant in Brooklyn! While I was out getting even more orange juice I saw lots of hipsters and regulars making the rounds, too. <br /><br />Mine over the season included Norf Cakalak, Oh HI! Oh and one of the beautiful cities on earth, Chi-town. That place is crazy gorgeous. Brooklyn New Yorkers are not generous with out-borough praise but this place is an astounding gotham to behold. No wonder the new Batmans are shot there. It's totally retro-futuristic. This is a *detail* of the Harold Washington Library (yay HW! One of the unsung heroes that aided our current president's ascent.) The picture after the detail is the building. <br /><br />Keep in mind: this is a *library*: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Roof_detail_east_Harold_Washington_Library.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 189px; height: 233px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Roof_detail_east_Harold_Washington_Library.png" border="0" alt=""></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://gochicagocard.com/blog/files/2008/02/chicago-harold-washington-library.jpg "><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 338px;" src="http://gochicagocard.com/blog/files/2008/02/chicago-harold-washington-library.jpg " border="0" alt=""></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Got a chance to see a show, catch up with arty friends and hang out with the sophisticated and downright perky Kimiko Hahn. Super fun!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_aL10Q47ICUE/SXvVsokmahI/AAAAAAAAMbA/proxfGNFScc/s400/IMG_0197.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_aL10Q47ICUE/SXvVsokmahI/AAAAAAAAMbA/proxfGNFScc/s400/IMG_0197.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Last night, I saw this lovely band: Melvin Gibbs' "Elevated Entity". If y'all know Melvin you know the roof was raised! <br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/rps-images/content_image/melvingibbs_newvert.jpg "><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 162px; height: 193px;" src="http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/rps-images/content_image/melvingibbs_newvert.jpg " border="0" alt=""></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />A great project. He's one of the great New York musicians (we'll claim him) but we have to share him with the rest of the planet, especially with the crew he's got for this project. Here's an overview -- <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=15988"></a><br /><br />http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=15988<br /><br />And he's a Gemini. I claim all of the twins (except the Bush parents, Guiliani and anyone I don't agree with). Spring is our season coming up. <br /><br />So I was happily thinking these fond thoughts and happened to be laying about in my sickened state and ran into Michael Moore's film, SiCKO (sp). That movie is one heck of a tear-jerker and a very deep meditation. <br /><br />Got me to thinking that the concept of "insurance" is really deep! Both SiCKO and this whole AIG thing makes me think of the relationship we have with the concept. I came across this joke from an insurance education page: <br /><br />Comedians often joke that, “it shouldn’t be called life insurance. It should be called death insurance because it doesn’t pay unless you die. And even then it still doesn’t pay you; it pays everyone BUT you!” (http://www.ensurance.com/lifeInformation.asp) <br /><br />That's kinda what Moore's film is dealing with and that the taxpayer bailout frustration is about. Feeling exploited and vulnerable. If you haven't seen the movie in a while, it's worth another look. Bring your hankies...<br /><br />http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6555965314375016580<br /><br />(Some of the links might need pasting, btw)<br /><br />But with the warm weather other possibilities seem feasible:<br /><br />Happily [excerpt] <br />by Lyn Hejinian<br /><br />What is not is now possible, a ponderable <br />You muse on musing on—so much now but you do<br />You can rearrange what the day gets from accidents but<br /> you can’t derive its reality from them<br />The dot just now adrift on the paper is not the product of<br /> the paper dark<br />Nearly negative but finite it springs from its own shadow<br /> and cannot be denied the undeniable world once it is<br /> launched—once it’s launched it’s derived <br />Tonight sounding roughly it isn’t quite that only words can<br /> reason beyond what’s reasonable that I drop my eyes to <br />Something comes<br />The experiences generated by sense perception come by the<br /> happenstance that is with them<br />Experiences resulting from things impinging on us<br />There is continuity in moving our understanding of them as they appear<br />Some which are games bring with them their own rules for<br /> action which is a play we play which we may play with<br /> an end we value not winning<br />The dilemmas in sentences form tables of discovery of<br /> things created to create the ever better dilemma which is<br /> to make sense to others<br /><br /><br />(hope Lynn doesn't consider this too much of an abomination of her poem...I used the Poets.org website to cut & paste from.)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-16056196133333242232009-03-04T07:17:00.002-05:002009-03-04T13:00:05.218-05:00In like Flynn...the Lion!(If you read the subject heading with a New York accent, it rhymes!)<br /><br />Well dahlinks, the last few weeks have been kinda interesting and the new month is keeping yours truly a'hoppin'... This'll be a little long. Just pretend I wrote 3 and put them together -- which is basically what I did. <br /><br />Couple weeks ago I got a chance to see two really yummy mainstream films just before Oscar's Day, <span style="font-style:italic;">Milk</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wrestler</span>. (Still got lots of catching up to do in this regard, obvs.) <span style="font-style:italic;">Milk</span> was one of the most endearing an elegant films I've seen. Just lovely and Penn was astounding. Such a nice light touch and he made me ask my favorite types of questions when I'm watching a film: "*That's* the guy from 'Mystic River'/'We're No Angels'/'Dead Man Walking'? Really lovely storytelling from Van Sant. I saw it with one of my buddies and we had to get T shirts afterwards, we were so giddy! <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Wrestler</span>'s tone was very different, gritty. Mickey Rourke was almost unbearable to see. Just heartwrenching. I didn't get a T-shirt that time but another friend of mine and I did take away lots of food for thought. I saw the film as more of a meditation on aging but that might just be because I don't care about sports not even contrived ones. Without that 'distraction' it was easier to look into the trajectory of this modestly hopeful character stubbornly plodding forward. After the movie I saw the comedian Marc Maron's new live show "Scorching the Earth". Very intense. My brother and I saw the first draft of it in Brooklyn and it's definitely gotten stronger. Raw, unapologetic and toward the end Marc reads this letter he wrote (that's all that I'll say about it -- see it yourself) but prefaces it by saying that he looks just as 'bad' as the person he wrote it to. An understatement. If you see the internet show he does w/ Sam Seder, the performance is like a more combative and raw version of his persona on Break Room Live. <br /><br />Well that was a couple weekends ago...<br /><br />Last weekend I hung out at Duke for the Infection in the Sentence experimental poetry conference. Got to hang out with my buddy Fred, jazz musician/poet and bon vivant Cecil Taylor, Brent, Christian, Eileen and lots of folks it's been good to see and been to long to see including two -- Susan and Cecilia -- whom I'd seen last at the surreal Helen Adam reading last year. Well you can find the whole list of participants of the conference (except for Kamau B who couldn't attend due to illness) on the Duke U website by googling the search terms. Lots of fun and way too much food. Quite yummy fare in the south and I swear the plates are bigger in North Carolina! I also got to see a grown up soon-to-be-former teen I know who looks like a lady and everything! I remember when her age was in the single digits. Ah, time fleeting thing. <br /><br />Speaking of academics, I got a mo to check out a talk at my lovely Institute that featured theorist Randy Martin. It was a great talk and those dancer types sure are lovely and demonstrative! They really can fill up a space! During a really fun lunch organized by Jon Beller, I found out that back in the day Mr. Martin had also met/took classes with an actor I've long been a fan of: Bill Irwin. (His presentation as George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" was an exhultant character study.) That's some crazy 1 degree of separation stuff right there! <br /><br />Snow came in this month and I barely dodged it in the air, I swear! My plane touched down before the snow fell. Phew! <br />Even though 'the weather outside is frightful' -ly cold, feels a little like spring is around the corner. That Puxatawney Phil was right again, I hate to admit but in NY at least, it's sunny! <br /><br />I'm traveling a bit now and hope to send off another missive soon in higher double digits!<br /><br />Tracie<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A Word dropped careless on a Page<br /></span><span style="font-style:italic;">by Emily Dickinson</span><br /><br />A Word dropped careless on a Page<br />May stimulate an eye<br />When folded in perpetual seam<br />The Wrinkled Maker lie<br /><br />Infection in the sentence breeds<br />We may inhale Despair<br />At distances of Centuries<br />From the Malaria --<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I Sing the Body Electric <br /></span><span style="font-style:italic;">by Walt Whitman</span> (first stanza) <br /><br />1<br />I sing the body electric,<br />The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,<br />They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,<br />And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A Noun Sentence <br /></span><span style="font-style:italic;">by Mahmoud Darwish <br />Translated by Fady Joudah</span><br /><br />A noun sentence, no verb <br />to it or in it: to the sea the scent of the bed <br />after making love ... a salty perfume <br />or a sour one. A noun sentence: my wounded joy <br />like the sunset at your strange windows. <br />My flower green like the phoenix. My heart exceeding <br />my need, hesitant between two doors: <br />entry a joke, and exit <br />a labyrinth. Where is my shadow—my guide amid <br />the crowdedness on the road to judgment day? And I <br />as an ancient stone of two dark colors in the city wall, <br />chestnut and black, a protruding insensitivity <br />toward my visitors and the interpretation of shadows. Wishing <br />for the present tense a foothold for walking behind me <br />or ahead of me, barefoot. Where <br />is my second road to the staircase of expanse? Where <br />is futility? Where is the road to the road? <br />And where are we, the marching on the footpath of the present <br />tense, where are we? Our talk a predicate <br />and a subject before the sea, and the elusive foam <br />of speech the dots on the letters, <br />wishing for the present tense a foothold <br />on the pavement ...Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-17186371063788818672009-02-05T10:47:00.006-05:002009-02-10T17:42:43.849-05:00It was a cold and wintry night...and I got to hang out with some lovely Bardians (newly graduated) under one of those bright, Brooklyn half-moons for a birthday party. <br /><br />We had a free-wheeling conversation and yummy birthday (cup)cake. Under candles folks started waxing about school and stuff. One of the things I encouraged them to do despite being smarty grad students, was to go the commencement ceremonies. My mother forced me to go to my graduations after I was a full-grown lady and they were fun! The whole ritual process of walking, the gown and stuff, really makes the experience tangible. You can feel time passing in a way that we're often too rushed to see.<br /><br />Speaking of tangibility, that weekend after the party I slid over to the Watermill Center on longuylan -- that's "Long Island" for non-natives -- and checked out Robert Wilson's spot: http://www.watermillcenter.org . Met some very groovy artists and saw some fun work by them. <br /><br />Despite the limited experience due to the winter climes (they've got lots going on in the outdoor space too), have to say the art collection in there is phenomenal. From all over the world from very modern to very old in spaces that were super minimal color-wise so each piece seemed to be suspended in animation. It was quite a different perspective for this writer to consider art in workspace (I live in an orange house, so that should tell you something). <br /><br />Quite the pristine spot and even kinda museum-y what with the no-shoes policy and my mom didn't even have to be there to tell me not to touch anything...guess I kept a few things from my 5-year old self!<br /><br />Even though my borough is attached, longuylan does feel New England-y in a way the rest of this neck of the woods does not. Some ways good, some ways bad: yesterday I was walking down 6th ave in Manhattan and there were these weird collections of garbage that seemed almost deliberately placed: a gigantic pile of left-over McDonald's food on the sidewalk as if it had been installed and further along in Greenwich village a substantial collection of horse manure almost pyramidal shaped on the sidewalk. It was just there with no indication that a horse had been there at all...odd even by NY standards. Rushing-by people had this look of disbelief on their faces, including me -- and we have a high garbage visibility threshold in these parts. <br /><br />They were so random yet self-contained that after I said 'gross'! I thought they had to be a set-up: the garbage in New York is like everything else good and bad in the city: not that well-organized. <br /><br />I did have flashbacks to NY in the 70s though: gritty, nasty, lively. Maybe those piles were milestones marking the end of gentrification as we knew it. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What</span> [The flower sermon] <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Ron Silliman</span> (excerpt) <br /> <br />The flower sermon:<br />critique is like a swoon<br />but with a step increase,<br />the awkward daughter who grows<br />to join the NBA. All we want<br />(ever wanted) was to be on that<br />mailing list, parties at which slim caterers<br />offer red, yellow, black caviar<br />spilling off the triangular crackers<br />while off on the bay<br />rainbow-striped sails dip and bob and<br />twist. The woman in the yellow raincoat sits<br />on a bench at the edge of the schoolyard<br />while two small children race<br />across the asphalt plaza. Too many books<br />sail the moth. A tooth that's lost<br />while flossing. A short line<br />makes for anxious music. Not breath<br />but civilization. The president<br />of Muzak himself says<br />that humming along constitutes time theft.<br />First snow in the Sierras = cold showers here. <br />The east is past. Margin of terror. The left<br />is where you feel it (dragging the eyes back<br />contra naturum). We're just in it<br />for the honey. Spackling paste<br />edits nails in wall when painted. Elbows,<br />shoulders jammed together on the bus.<br />At each transfer point, glimpse how lives<br />weave past. A woman with an interesting book<br />in her purse which I pretend not to see. <br />Letters crowd into a thought. Green paper<br />folded around long-stemmed roses<br />is stapled shut. Rapid winter sunset<br />lacks twilight.<br /><br /><br />PS: BTW, if you saw my earlier post from almost exactly 2 years ago (or not), I lamented on the traciemorris.net bulkregister inaccessibility drama. Anyway it's ovah and you can find my little pithy comments via traciemorris.com, traciemorris.net and/or tracieswebsite.com or .net. -- TTraciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-72694520913146665352009-01-28T14:44:00.003-05:002009-01-28T15:31:30.975-05:00...and furthermore: Moo!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SYDAGqkk1rI/AAAAAAAAABg/ORrWbAGhrfY/s1600-h/draft_lens1847905module13536060photo_1232388344Year_of_the_Ox_-_Kwokshukee.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 185px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ixLexwbdkeU/SYDAGqkk1rI/AAAAAAAAABg/ORrWbAGhrfY/s320/draft_lens1847905module13536060photo_1232388344Year_of_the_Ox_-_Kwokshukee.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296444382527149746" /></a><br /><br /><br />Yay for Oxen, including Cows(en)!<br /><br />Every Chinese New Year I post a Happy one since most of the human population on the earth follow this lunar cycle. I've been chowing down on 'the people's food' after my foray down south and boy could my tummy use the break from the rich Louisiana food. Now I'm having rich Asian food. Not as sleep-inducing but very tasty!<br /><br />Not that New Year is *all* about the food but folks do celebrate via the plate. <br /><br />My lovely Korean bodega owner (and if that designation isn't an amalgam that's emblematic of NYC, what is?) said the Ox year is good: hard working, loyal, nice. Well we could all use a bit more of those qualities, no?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />THE WISE OX KNOWS:<br />"You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind."<br /><br /><br />No need for a poem after that line! (h/t to squidoo.com, Image Credit: kwokshukee@flickr.com)Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-33963613438648730902009-01-28T03:56:00.002-05:002009-01-28T11:01:13.260-05:00Snowbirdin'So I got a minute away from my fifth of the apple and hung out in some sunnier climes in the Gulf State of LA. Still the best food on earth (and I don't concede Brooklyn's props -- on *anything*-- easily). <br /><br />Everything is tasty and everyone is an enabler when it comes to eating, so I just gave up and 'went with the local culture'. I swear I gained about 15 pounds in 3 days. Not a bad way to go. <br /><br />In addition to the culinary excess, it was great to visit the area again. I hadn't been to the area since FEMA messed up in 2005 (just to jog the memory hole, Katrina did not hit landfall, it was the levee breaking that flooded the area). People are amazingly resilient and the artist community as well as the culture in general is dealing with the inevitable post-traumatic stress of that event. The whole experience gave me food for thought about Americana in general: how we feel separated from 'different' folks near us and how close, and in some ways, unifying an extraordinary collective experience can be. Not trying to romanticize the situation at all, or mitigate the disproportionate number of poor/Black folks affected by the flooding, but just to note the non-visual but no-less substantive relationships between people. Folks seemed more <span style="font-style:italic;">connected</span> somehow. But I'm just a hick from the Northeast and may not know what the deal is. I am a bit romantic though, and do hope this sense of connectedness between communities I felt is, in fact, the case. <br /><br />Goes to show why, as Sandra Ruiz and I argued in an edition of the journal "women and performance" that <span style="font-style:italic;">policy</span> matters. We focused on art but it is generally the case. I very much hope that the Federal Government will set a tone that trickles down to less divisiveness. Not to negate cultural <span style="font-style:italic;">distinctions</span> -- unique contributions are often worth keeping -- but they don't have to be sources of antagonism to be sources of pride. (Okay, everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya! I know, I know. Mushy much?)<br /><br />Poem:<br /><br />Restoration <br />by Mary Cornish<br /><br />Everyone knew the water would rise,<br />but nobody knew how much.<br />The priest at Santa Croce said, God<br />will not flood the church.<br />When the Arno broke its banks, <br />God entered as a river, let His mark high<br />above the altar.<br />He left nothing untouched:<br />stones, plaster, wood. <br />You are all my children.<br />The hem of His garment, which was<br />the river’s bottom sludge,<br />swept through Florence, filling cars and cradles,<br />the eyes of marble statues,<br />even the Doors of Paradise. And the likeness<br />of His son’s hands, those pierced palms soaked<br />with water, began to peel like skin.<br />The Holy Ghost appeared<br />as clouds of salted crystals<br />on the faces of saints, until the intonaco<br />of their painted bodies stood out from the wall as if<br />they had been resurrected. <br /><br />This is what I know of restoration:<br />in a small room near San Marco,<br />alone on a wooden stool<br />nearly every day for a year,<br />I painted squares of blue on gessoed boards—<br />cobalt blue with madder rose, viridian,<br />lamp black—pure pigments and the strained yolk<br />of an egg, then penciled notes about the powders,<br /><br />the percentages of each. I never asked<br />to what end I was doing what I did, and now<br />I’ll never know. Perhaps there was one square<br />that matched the mantle of a penitent, the stiff<br />hair of a donkey’s tail, a river calm beneath a bridge.<br />I don’t even know what I learned,<br />except the possibilities of blue, and how God enters.<br /><br /><br />PS: if I can figure out how to add an audio clip to my own blog, I'll include one of my song "Katrina Blues" on Elliott Sharp's group Terraplane from the album "Secret Life".Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-61832073322722868612009-01-16T16:08:00.002-05:002009-01-16T16:34:14.466-05:00up and running...Hey Folks:<br /><br />I am exhausted thinking about the inauguration. You? Even from the NYC it seems like lots of coordinatin'. <br /><br />There's so much to get going though after the celebrating. I can't believe our pres.-elect is already campaigning for his "new deal". I'm tired just seeing pictures of him in the news online! I can't imagine what it must be like to be running around moving (from the hotel, to Blair House to the White House -- oh and that last move by Bush to delay the Blair House move: could dude be *more* tacky on his way out? John Howard? Please.) Anyway, I guess all that running is part of the job and Obama seems to be diving in feet first before the swearing in, even. These confirmations have been moving forward and the dinners? My goodness I'd take all sorts of preventative antidotes before breaking bread with some of those folks...(I know, right?: New Yorkers and their paranoia.)<br /><br />After, after and after is everybody's doing though. I feel more pressure to do, be myself. Talk about raising that bar. Feeling kinda positive about it though! Hence the title of this entry.<br /><br />And speaking of, yay pilot! (RIP, Canadian geese.) We got plenty of drama in the Tristate area. Last thing we need is a plane crash and folks hurt. That was so great that no one was permanently injured or killed. How scary was that? <br /><br />Well the outgoing White House persona was hitting the trails and creating, as always, great literature to riff off of. De Hudson wuz deep but De Nile....(yeah, I trotted out that oldie. Sue me.) A person who speaks well representing the country. Yay. I may not always agree with Obama but at least my Elements of Style won't automatically freeze up with the collective sympathy pains of the world, when he's talking. (My books are very animated.) <br /><br />Speaking of old school, here's some poems. <br /><br />Feliz Enero, <br />Tracie<br /><br />PS: In case it isn't super obvious by now, the poems are an extension of this blog's commentary and, just as the prose isn't usually experimental (even though I'm an 'experimental' poet), most of the poems are fairly transparent as are my little ol' notes. -- t<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">I Hear America Singing.</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Walt Whitman</span><br /><br /> I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, <br /> Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe <br /> and strong, <br /> The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, <br /> The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off <br /> work, <br /> The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck- <br /> hand singing on the steamboat deck, <br /> The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing <br /> as he stands, <br /> The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morn- <br /> ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown, <br /> The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, <br /> or of the girl sewing or washing, <br /> Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, <br /> The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young <br /> fellows, robust, friendly, <br /> Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I, Too, Sing America</span> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by Langston Hughes</span><br /><br />I, too, sing America.<br /><br />I am the darker brother.<br />They send me to eat in the kitchen<br />When company comes,<br />But I laugh,<br />And eat well,<br />And grow strong.<br /><br />Tomorrow,<br />I'll be at the table<br />When company comes.<br />Nobody'll dare<br />Say to me,<br />"Eat in the kitchen,"<br />Then.<br /><br />Besides, <br />They'll see how beautiful I am<br />And be ashamed--<br /><br />I, too, am America.Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-31556124203492427432009-01-08T09:22:00.005-05:002009-01-08T10:39:46.111-05:00Okay, it's really 2009, right?Is it just me or is 2009 really here? Takes me about a week, don't know about you (or even a month or so depending on the Chinese New Year calendar. Ox/Cow year is coming up fast.) Feels like everyone is abuzz and seriously moving but cautious about the times...<br /><br />Being one of the "hypersensitive" artsy-types one of the things I've been feeling is folks just not being into shopping. Even if 'broke-broke' hasn't really hit everyone yet, it's like the superconsumer is passe...Even Bill Cunningham (the NY Times fashion reporter, not the right-wing intolerant), said the new fashion is for the well-to-do to go into their closets and wear stuff they've had for several seasons. I confess: the spry octogenarian-on-a-bike's NYT slideshow is one of my weekly guilty pleasures. (Yeah, so? That's what living a fairly clean-cut life leaves you with -- perusing other's fashion statements). <br /><br />http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_cunningham/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=bill%20cunningham&st=cse<br />(See the "Keepers" audio slideshow.)<br /><br />On the political tip, seems like everyone is hemming in homeslice! *Now* the Democrats are standing up to executive authority...( -- or in Reid's case, kinda slumping? Dude!) And not to be too US of America-centric, but the situation jumping off in Gaza just had to be encouraged by the current, yet absent, administration. What have they been quietly up to since November 4th?<br /><br />Sam Seder (actor/comedian/pundit) had a really interesting take on this situation, saying that the hard-liners in Israel are positioning a withdrawal just before the American inauguration to shift the focus of the MidEast discussion. There's also a national election coming up in Israel soon, which probably has a bit more than a little to do with the recent war. One thing I do know is Cheney has been seriously trying to get his war on (some more) and it didn't work out to his liking in Iran, though that dude was *pushing it* so here we all are. For other points of view (in the States) it's excellent to check out Cenk Uygur's Young Turks blog and Mark Levine (from the Inside Scoop, not to be confused with the rightwinger Mark Levin, yikes!) and the other progressive, Tikkun writer Mark LeVine. Very different and passionate perspectives. All good folks. <br /><br />This isn't my area of expertise so I'm checking it like y'all, from afar, to be real about it. Not to be too sentimentally-based and non-analytical but it's just heartbreaking to see all this death and destruction between two historically oppressed and displaced groups of people. Seriously. Makes me wonder if this was all a set up -- grab your makeshift Reynolds Wrap hat! -- it's not like the folks who organized this situation in Europe back in the day weren't anxious to get *both* parties out of the way. How better than for them to fight each other? And then we've got the nuts here right now who want Israel around so Jesus can smite the country later. Same mindset, different century. <br /><br />Either way, this is a rock and roll year for sure already. You can see my tone is changing a little blogwise: a bit more overt politics, sometimes. If I jump in more with both feet maybe I'll even post more! God forbid!<br /><br />Below here's a poem to lick: mmm -- yum!<br /><br />Tracie<br /><br /><br />PS: I picked this poem (h/t to poets.org) because, like all great poems, you can many things into it. Most of the notes on this post can be implicated in it in some way, even oppositional stances. Poems aren't to show what's there, they're to show more. -- t<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">To me that man seems like a god in heaven (51) </span> <br />by Gaius Valerius Catullus <br />Translated by Charles Martin<br /><br />To me that man seems like a god in heaven,<br />seems—may I say it?—greater than all gods are,<br />who sits by you & without interruption<br /> watches you, listens<br /><br />to your light laughter, which casts such confusion<br />onto my senses, Lesbia, that when I <br />gaze at you merely, all of my well-chosen<br /> words are forgotten<br /><br />as my tongue thickens & a subtle fire<br />runs through my body while my ears deafened<br />by their own ringing & at once my eyes are<br /> covered in darkness!<br /><br />Leisure, Catullus. More than just a nuisance,<br />leisure: you riot, overmuch enthusing.<br />Fabulous cities & their sometime kings have<br /> died of such leisure.Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24835948.post-38066372845218075752009-01-03T11:44:00.000-05:002009-01-03T12:08:18.469-05:00Happy New Year!!!!I am so happy to have made it through 2008! Lots and lots of changes. I don't forsee 2009 being exactly <span style="font-style:italic;">quiet</span> but maybe more productive as folks get into "nose to the grindstone" mode. <br /><br />The money thing is crazy, crazy and I hope our national leadership can help folks "keep their heads up". Perception is really important and if we think positively...things will *still* be difficult but at least we'll be looking ahead. <br /><br />For those who didn't make it through to the end of last year, I hope those of us still here can gain comfort through the deep meaning your time on earth gave the rest of us. Lots of losses in the popular arts and more 'off the beaten path" folks. Icons and future icons gone too soon, for us. <br /><br />Still problems and still possibilities, opportunities. Weirdly, I can't get into the 'bunker mentality' even though all signs indicate that I'm supposed to: Planet's messed up, no money, mo problems, etc. Seems like there hasn't been a moment to relax and rejoice since election day. Maybe I'm a bit on the wrong side here but I just can't buy into the 'nattering nabobs'. I feel that so much of the drama since November has been targeted to keep folks 'anti-optimistic'. Being a contrarian by nature, I just gotta go the other way on it. Hunker down, yes. Bunker, no. (Corny, probably!)<br /><br />Another poem, as usual, to put the spirit on ya. <br /><br />xo and hny, <br />T<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(excerpt)</span> E<span style="font-weight:bold;">ndymion, Book I</span>, [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever] <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">by John Keats</span><br /><br />Book I<br /> <br /> <br />A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: <br />Its loveliness increases; it will never <br />Pass into nothingness; but still will keep <br />A bower quiet for us, and a sleep <br />Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. <br />Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing <br />A flowery band to bind us to the earth, <br />Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth <br />Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, <br />Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways <br />Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, <br />Some shape of beauty moves away the pall <br />From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, <br />Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon <br />For simple sheep; and such are daffodils <br />With the green world they live in; and clear rills <br />That for themselves a cooling covert make <br />'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake, <br />Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms: <br />And such too is the grandeur of the dooms <br />We have imagined for the mighty dead; <br />All lovely tales that we have heard or read: <br />An endless fountain of immortal drink, <br />Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.Traciehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12964778240719197070noreply@blogger.com0